Aurors vs The Condemned
by writerspassion18
Summary: He blew another kiss at her and she turned her head, more than disgusted. She caught Draco's eye once more and instead of scowling, he mouthed two words to her. "Good luck." In this twisted little game, Hermione would sure need it. *Part One of The Condemned Series - A Dramione Trilogy*
1. Taken

Hermione crawled onto land, clutching onto the rough soil for dear life as if she would somehow roll back into the lake. She laid there on the ground, panting, and then sat up in a pile of dirt and stared at the water. Flinching in disgust, she saw Conrad's arm float atop the water while the rest of it lay submerged underneath the surface. Her wrist began to burn and Hermione winced as she looked at it. Conrad's face was illuminated and a second later a red X was placed over it. Hermione huffed, wondering whose face would become that way for the last and final time.

Taking that little frustrated breath made her realize how much damage her body had taken within those few minutes. She looked across the lake and then brought her eyes up and around her, trying to figure out where she and Conrad had fallen from. When she had, Hermione noted that it was truly from a magnificent height and that the hill must've been quite the steep one. She looked down at herself to see where she was bleeding from, if she was bleeding at all. She saw with satisfaction that she wasn't actively doing so, the only bit of red having been smeared and dried.

As Hermione turned to stand and plow her way through the forest behind her, the rustling of grass could be heard. She stopped, subconsciously digging her fingers in the dirt until they became camouflaged. She had to think and she had to think fast. The other three killings, though _justified_, weren't intended. Hermione had wanted to talk and of course that was the last thing on their minds. Actually that "talking" thing had gone through the door after Angela was killed. But now that this was the end, now that they were the only ones left, and especially because she was one of the most stubborn people around, she'd might as well try it again. This was her last shot and quite the long one. His face hadn't appeared on her wristband, so things could play out in only one way: Hermione trying to talk to him. The opportunity to do so came at her feet as he laughed and began speaking.

"I didn't know that it was my birthday, and yet here you are, a nice little present for me."

"I didn't know it was your birthday either." Hermione replied as she turned around and stood. "I kind of pegged you as a spring baby. April, or late march,"

Draco smiled and Hermione returned one. This was the fourth time that she was seeing him up close; the first when she had been released from her cell, the second when he had killed Angela and the third when she had been mercilessly hanging upside down. He was in no better shape than she was. While her tank was ripped in several places, some bits of cloth hanging loosely, his was practically nonexistent. Her hair was, as was the rest of her, wet and covered in dirt. Draco was the same; his hair messily thrown about his face, the only visible things on it was his smile, showing off perfect white teeth, and his eyes, cold, steely, and hard, moving over every inch of her.

"So my little wristband's told me, you're the only one left." Draco said as he fingered his wand. He chuckled, taking few and slow steps towards her. "Can't say that I'm not surprised… There were eight of us in the beginning; four Aurors, four convicts. I killed off three, all Aurors, one before your very eyes. I didn't dare to touch my fellow inmates since the point of this is for _us_ to win, not you. But imagine my surprise as I saw their faces getting crossed off. You're quite the dangerous one, aren't you, Granger?"

"It was either them or me."

"Ah yes, the need to fight for survival and a stupid reason to use… It's alright to say that you wanted to kill them, the scum of the earth that they were. Especially Conrad who I heard and saw firsthand," Here he laughed, being fully amused. "…had a bit of a thing for you. How'd you kill him by the way?"

Hermione nodded towards the lake. "Drowned,"

"I see. Well," Draco took his dueler's stance. "I'm interested to see how this will play out, now knowing that you're far from merciful."

Hermione didn't move. Her wand was in her hand, but kept down by her sides. Draco was ready and waiting, but he was waiting for no reason. When he saw that she wasn't moving, he began to scowl.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I'm not fighting you."

"The hell you're not."

"The hell I am." Hermione challenged. "Instead of fighting each other we should be heading to that stupid Watch Tower."

"…Why?"

"Because they have the keys to our release… No matter how much flinging you into the nearest tree or even drowning you in that lake with Conrad might make my day, what's the point? Aurors don't leave here. They'll keep me here for the next round of bloodbaths."

"Of course they will." Draco rolled his eyes. He lowered his wand by a few inches, but still kept a firm grip on it. "This is meant for a convict to win, not an Auror. Why should I go to the Watch Tower and fight against the very people who'll set me free? I can simply kill you and be on my way. So with that said, get into position, Granger."

"No, I won't." Hermione shook her head and began heading towards and pass him. She was heading into the forest behind him and Draco was growing angrier than ever.

"_Granger_," He called. "Granger, get back here! Get back here and fight me, damn it! _Granger_!"

"_What_, Malfoy?" She turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you want?"

"You know what I want."

"And you won't get it. You want to kill me so badly? Do it. But you'll have to do with my back turned because I'm heading to that Watch Tower and putting an end to all of this."

Hermione dropped her arms to her sides and continued on her way through the forest. At each step she took she was waiting to feel a spell hit her. She took a sigh of relief the further she got, and then she began to smile when she heard leaves rustling and footsteps grow closer until Draco was walking beside her.

"You tell anyone I showed you any ounce of mercy and then I'll _really_ kill you." Draco snarled at her, and then reluctantly gave his hand for her to shake. Hermione took it and gave off a grin.

"Don't worry. I'll tell them I tortured you. Sound better?"

"Much better,"

_Two days ago…_

Hermione and her fellow coworkers were sitting around a large conference table watching a show on a large screen. It wasn't for pleasure, though everyone in that room had certainly wished that it was. A new thing had begun coming out on the streets a few weeks ago called Aurors vs. the Condemned. It was exactly as it sounded; a horribly wicked show that magically streamed through the air to play on televisions of wizards who owned them, which in this day and age was almost everyone. It portrayed convicts who mysteriously made it out of Azkaban and Aurors who kept getting abducted, taken to some unknown location that the Ministry was desperately trying to find.

The object of the game was simple: you want to leave the island? Kill everyone else and be the last one standing. There was always an equal number of Aurors and convicts and almost always a convict won. Their prize? To be released back into the world; a wonderful bonus for the prisoner who was destined to die in Azkaban. If an Auror won, he or she was never that lucky. They were to stay on the island for another go and it would continue that way until they lost. It was the cruelest thing Hermione had ever had to watch, and she was thoroughly happy when the Head of the Auror Department shut the show off and pulled up the screen.

"And another convict wins." One of the Aurors morbidly commented.

Harry huffed and then sighed. "And they'll _always_ win. That's how this show is made to be."

"Exactly… And then they're back out on the streets to wreak havoc again. This thing has been airing for the past six days." Peter Atkins, the Head of the Auror Department said. "That's three episodes and twenty-one deaths in _six days_. We need to figure out where the hell this thing is coming from."

"What we need to do is find out how these prisoners are getting out of Azkaban." Hermione imputed, and everyone in the room nodded. "Azkaban has more Dementors than ever before as well as human guards on land so the prisoners can be arrested on sight when they come ashore. How they're doing this should be impossible."

"Yet it is." Atkins sighed, and glanced outside of the window. The sun was beginning to set and they could no longer stay at the Ministry. All Aurors had been given curfews after the second episode of Aurors vs. the Condemned aired. They were to report home and to stay there until the next work day when a Ministry official would come to their home to side-along Floo with them back to the Ministry.

"Go home, everyone. We'll talk more of this in the morning."

Everyone in the conference room agreed and left the room in rather low spirits. They said goodbye to each other with the deepest of words, mostly because the third show had just finished. That meant that a fourth would be coming and, it was possible, that some of them would be missing the next day.

Hermione Flooed home with Harry and Ron at her side. They had been doing that even before the show had come about, but now they deemed it necessary, and checked her house from top to bottom for anything that looked strange and out of place. After that they stayed for a few more hours, keeping her company but also attending to any sounds that they heard. Normally Hermione would laugh at them for this, but in times like these she was just as suspicious.

"Are you sure that you don't want to come and stay with me or Harry?" Ron asked as he and Harry stood in front of her fireplace. "Those devils are going to be looking for more competitors. You know that."

"I know, but I'll be fine." Hermione reassured him. "You've checked the house a thousand times and I've put up all the necessary barriers. I'll be alright. Now, go on so I can seal up the fireplace. I'll see the both of you in the morning."

Harry and Ron nodded and bid her a farewell as they Flooed out. Once the fireplace was empty Hermione magically made a brick barrier that filled up the entire fireplace. She sighed and took a look around. The past few nights had been a complete nightmare. She was so tense and nervous that she even had to give Crookshanks away to Ginny for a while. Hermione still loved him, of course, but he was quite the restless cat. Every time there was a small noise made within the house Hermione would flee from bed, wand drawn, only to find that Crookshanks had broken something and had given a her heart attack for no reason.

Sighing, Hermione turned off all the lights and went to bed. How well she would sleep tonight was something to be found out in a matter minutes. Sleep had been evading her as well, and she was too frightened to take anything for it in case there came a need for her to defend herself. Couldn't very well do it with a stomach full of sleep aids… And so, Hermione suffered for the most part, sleeping in one hour-intervals.

But tonight for some reason Hermione was having a great sleep. She had only gotten up once and that was just to readjust the pillow that she had under her head. Though she was sleeping well, Hermione had been woken up once more around three a.m. that morning. She lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out if she was awake just because of herself or if it was because she had heard something while asleep. She judged that it was the first reason, and rolled over onto her side to try to go back to bed when she heard a sound.

Hermione's eyes shot bolt open, and she immediately took out her wand that she had begun keeping underneath her pillow. She carefully rolled out of bed, wand in hand, straining her ears to hear anything more. She did, and then to her horror saw that her bedroom doorknob was turning. Hermione quickly crept pass the door and stood behind it. It opened, covering her completely, and she saw a cloaked figure walk into her room, staring at the bed, obviously wondering where she had gone.

"Stupefy," Hermione said inaudibly, and watched as the person was knocked off their feet and through the window that was behind him. She could hear other people in the living room and Hermione wasted no time. She came out from behind her door and started on a charge. There was no point in apparating for she had placed an anti-apparating charm over the house, which, unfortunately, meant that she couldn't get out. But how did they get in? That was a question for another time. Right now she needed to fight. Just as Hermione was about to send as many curses as she could, she stopped.

Her entire house was clothed in a fog and Hermione began coughing incessantly. Her wand dropped from her hand and she fell onto her hands and knees. She couldn't breathe. She was taking the deepest breaths she could, but found that no air was coming. She looked up, seeing that three more cloaked figures were in front of her, all of them with wands in hand.

"Congratulations, Auror Granger." One of them said. "You've been selected."

Hermione could say nothing. As she attempted to breathe for the final time, she blacked out completely

**Author's note:** Hello Everyone! I originally had this up on and based it on a movie called "The Condemned." It's a part of a trilogy that has been named the Condemned Series, so I hope that you do enjoy!

Happy reading! - WP


	2. The Competitors

Before Hermione could see, she could hear. She heard a variety of things and amused herself by pinpointing what exactly each of them was. For one, there was a steady dripping that was coming from above her. The drops were landing near her face for she could feel gentle splatters across her right cheek. She could hear the sound of mice, maybe rats, scuttling across the ground which allowed Hermione determined that she had to be in the dingiest of places. The thing that she was really straining to hear was voices, if any, that could be there with her. If she could hear that, Hermione would be quite happy. She would know that she wasn't alone, but what she could only hear was the whistling of the wind –a draft, really, coming in from somewhere.

Hermione dared to open her eyes. She found that she was laying on her back, arms and legs spread out as though she were in the middle of making a snow angel. She turned her head to right to see a stone wall and felt a drop of water hit her cheek. She raised a hand to wipe it away and found that she was sore. She now dreaded to know what had been done to her while she was unconscious, and as best she could, moved her arms all about her body to see if her clothes were torn or disheveled in any other way.

With a satisfying sigh she determined that she hadn't been tampered with, and Hermione used all her might to roll herself over onto her right and stand up. She turned around and found that she was in what resembled a jail cell. There was also a man sitting in a chair in front of the cell, deeply asleep. Hermione smiled. She then searched frantically all around the cell for any point of escape. She wouldn't dare try opening the cell door, not knowing what lay behind it, and _especially_ not without her wand.

After a minute or so of searching Hermione began to smile broader and saw that near the top of the cell there was a window big enough for her to get though. The wall of the cell was stuffed with jagged rocks, like a rock climbing wall. She got a good grip for her hands and feet and started her climb. At first it proved a bit difficult, but there was no way in hell that she was giving up. She got the hang of it and went up, getting closer and closer to the window until she was close enough to touch it. When she did however, Hermione felt a huge electric shock overcome her body. She let out a shriek and lost her grip and footing. Hermione fell onto back, _hard_, making her realize that a two foot drop could hurt like hell. Her fall had woken up the man in the chair and he stood up, moving over to the cell and stared at her.

"'Mornin' sunshine," He smiled, showing off two missing teeth. Hermione stared up at him and pushed herself up from the ground, her back aching considerably. "Sleep well?"

"Sure," Hermione grinned. She nodded to him and crossed her arms. "Yeah, I'd say so. How about you? Did you sleep well?"

The man scowled and went over to the chair that he had just gotten up from. He leaned down next to it and picked up something from the ground. It turned out to be two articles of clothing of which he pushed through the bars of the cell door one by one. Hermione watched them fall to the floor and then looked back up at the man.

"Put those on."

"No."

"No?"

"That's right, _no_. Are you deaf?"

The man raised his wand and a moment later Hermione had been reduced to her knees. Another wave of an electric shock had rippled through her body. The shock only lasted for a few seconds but the effects of it seemed to last for several minutes. She raised her head up to the man and took several deep breaths.

"_What is that?_"

"A little somethin' ter keep ya and the rest in check." He motioned to the clothes on ground and then spat to his left. "Put 'em on."

Hermione, still on her knees, pulled the pile of clothing towards her. She was looking for the man to leave the room, but he was still there, having resumed his seat and now smiling broadly. She knew now that he would watch her as she dressed and an awful shiver rose up and down her spine. She stood to her feet and turned her back to him. Hermione wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her dress from the front, and quickly stripped herself of the t-shirt and shorts that she had been sleeping in.

_Thank Merlin I had forgotten to take off my bra before I slept…_ Hermione thought as she slipped on the army green tank top. She pulled on the khaki-colored pants and then looked around for shoes before realizing that there weren't any. She turned back around, startled to see that two more men had joined the first one, all on their feet.

"I was hoping to see a second show." One of them said. "The other female Auror was a right _pleasure_ to watch dress."

"Too bad," Hermione snapped at him and all three began to laugh.

"Oi, I like her." The third man spoke as he walked up to the cell door. Hermione took several steps back as he opened it and balled her hands into fists. She wasn't a fighter, not with her hands, but she damn sure would try. As the man saw her stance he chuckled. "Calm yourself down. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Oh, really? Why should I believe you?"

"Because he's been ordered not to,"

Hermione looked beyond the man who had entered her cell and saw that a door had opened, letting in a tremendous amount of light. She could only see his shadow, but could see that he was a built man, tall, and obviously the leader of all this.

"Bring her along then, gentlemen. We have a schedule to keep."

Hermione was roughly grabbed by her upper arm and led out of the cell. Someone tossed a pair of shoes her way, boots really, perfect for hiking, and she put them on. Of the other two men in the room one walked in front of her while the other walked behind. She was taken to the door the leader had come from and she had to use her free arm to shield her eyes from the light. Once her eyes became adjusted Hermione realized that she had been brought to a large room where she saw three people that she instantly realized.

"Oh, no, not you too!" Angela, an Auror, exclaimed as she gave Hermione a tight hug. Once they pulled away Hermione was able to see who else had been taken in the night.

"We were wondering." A man named Charles said. "We were wondering who else they had taken. We were hoping that it wasn't you."

"Your thoughts just gravitated to me, did they?" Hermione gently chuckled, and James, the third Auror, quickly shook his head.

"We heard them talking. They were talking about you, or at least we thought they were. We weren't sure until now."

"What were they saying?"

"They were talking about you and a prisoner." Angela explained. "About how the two of you would make this episode the best one yet."

"I wonder why they'd say that…"

Before Hermione could get her statement answered, a door on their left opened. There they were, the convicts, and they were led out of a room unaccompanied by guards or any other sort of restraints. Hermione scoffed. It was easy to see firsthand where the creator of this little game's loyalties were held. As the four convicts took their positions in a straight line, one in front each Auror, Hermione found that she recognized them all. The first two, Edmund Vandy and Olivia Evans, Hermione had only read their profiles and had never had the luxury of meeting them face to face. The next, Harland Conrad, she had arrested personally, and he at the moment he was currently blowing soft kisses her way. The fourth convict, Draco bloody Malfoy, she had never arrested. Harry had. And even if this wasn't the perfect opportunity to seek revenge on him by killing one of his best friends, there was a whole past full of hatred of her that he could act on.

"You're the first one I'm going after." Conrad said to Hermione. Draco eyed him and gently chuckled. The leader of all this heard Conrad's comment and addressed him.

"You know her?"

"'Course I do. She's the pretty little thing that arrested me three years ago."

"Oh, that's bloody fantastic!" He replied enthusiastically. "And here I thought the only show would've been between Granger and Malfoy. This is the best selection I've made yet."

"No hard feelings, mate." Conrad said to Draco. "But I've got a bit of a score to settle."

"…Don't worry about it." Draco answered without looking at him. He was standing in front of Hermione and staring straight at her. Their eyes were locked, and in that instant she knew that he was saving her for last. And when he finally moved his eyes from her, giving a small and casual smirk, she knew that he also thought that she wouldn't live pass five hours –seven, if someone took out Conrad first.

"Alright ladies and gentleman," The leader said to everyone. "My name is Matthew Thorn, and those people back there," He pointed to ten rather large men who were standing in a line of their own. "They're my men. To the Aurors, they're the ones who bound, gagged, and brought you here. To my fellow convicts, they're the ones who released you from Azkaban."

Vandy, Evans, and Conrad let out hoops, hollers, and a round of applause while Draco simply rolled his eyes and sucked his teeth, obviously bored of this whole ordeal already. Hermione let out a soft laugh, and Draco quickly snapped his eyes to hers.

"Find something funny, Granger?"

"Yes," Hermione smiled and Draco's upper lip turned up into a snarl as Thorn began speaking again.

"Now, I'm pretty sure that all of you have noticed a device strapped to your wrists."

Hermione looked down at her right wrist and then to her left, finally noticing the _lovely_ piece of jewelry that they had strapped her with while she was out cold. It was two inches long in width, a dark shade of brown, and with a small square screen.

"That little bit of machinery is what's keeping you here." Thorn informed them. "You try to leave here other than by _death_, a wave of electrocution will ring through your body causing a tremendous amount of pain."

_So, that's where that came from…_ Hermione reflected on her two shocks that morning and then instantly decided that she hated the stupid thing that was attached to her wrist.

"Now, the rules of the game are simple. You work hard as hell trying to kill each other until one of you is left."

"The muggle way..?" Evans pouted. She crossed her arms and huffed. "Well, that's not much fun."

Thorn laughed and began shaking his head. "Oh, well aren't you the cute one. No, no, you'll have wands." He motioned to two of his men who were still standing in position and they came with two small open cases, inside of them being wands. "Now, they're not _your_ wands, obviously. And I know the whole malarkey about a certain wand being _destined_ for you and all of that, but if the wand you're using doesn't work that well for you, well, you'll just have to make it."

Thorn smiled as everyone picked their wand. Hermione eyed Conrad who was smiling endlessly. He blew another kiss at her and she turned her head, more than disgusted. She caught Draco's eye once more and instead of scowling, he mouthed two words to her.

"Good luck,"

"Likewise," Hermione mouthed back, and then watched as Thorn took out his own wand.

"Oh, and one last thought before you go. Do try to kill off each other off by 8 pm tomorrow."

"Why?" Angela asked. "Why until then?"

"Because if you don't and I don't see anyone coming here, to the Watch Tower, claiming victory, those charming devices on your wrists will electrocute you until death. I don't know about you, but I'd rather the Killing Curse to that. Anyway," Thorn smiled, and raised his wand. "Be swift. Your time starts now."

Hermione felt as though she was apparating, but it wasn't her who was doing it. She was being taken somewhere and in a flash she felt her body collide with the ground. She was lying face up, arms and legs spread out for the second time that day.


	3. Necessary Actions

The Ministry was frantic. All of the Aurors were in the same conference room they had been in yesterday with one exception: four of them were missing. Harry and Ron were particularly anxious of course because one of the four was their Hermione.

"We should've made her come." Ron was saying as Atkins was pulling out the screen for the show that they all knew would be airing within seconds. "We should've kept on insisting. She of all people shouldn't be there."

"I know, I know." Harry said irritably. Since he had learned that Hermione hadn't been home and that her bedroom window was smashed, he had taken up the horrible habit of biting his nails. They were to the nub now, as if he had been doing it all his life.

"Quiet everyone." Atkins ordered. "It's on."

"We welcome you all to another installment of Aurors vs. the Condemned." The over-voice of the show came on. "As for our Aurors, this time around we have the pleasure of bringing to you Charles McCoy, James Avery, Angela Morrison, and the infamous Hermione Granger. And for our lovely convicts, we present to you Edmond Vandy, Olivia Evans, Harland Conrad, and Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy?!" Harry and Ron said in astonishment, and everyone in the room turned their heads toward them; they too, knowing the huge problem that having Draco there posed for Hermione.

"And then there's Conrad." Ron whispered to Harry. "We all know Hermione's the breaking point for that crazy nutter. That's two against one for her!"

"And a greater chance that she'll be killed."

…..

Hermione opened her eyes and saw the tall trees that surrounded her as she sniffed the air. Salt. That told her that there was an ocean nearby. After letting her fingers fondle the ground for a few seconds she found that it was the softest she'd ever felt. All at once she began checking off all coastal rainforests that she knew of. Hermione, who had still been lying flat on her back, cautiously sat up. She was in the middle of a forest and the sun was burning like mad. Already she had broken out in a sweat and she hadn't so much as lifted her wand an inch.

_The wand!_ Hermione instantly began patting herself for it, growing more and more anxious by the minute as she couldn't find it. It was only after she had gotten on her hands and knees and began digging in the dirt did she find that it had rolled away from her some few feet when she had landed. Hermione gave a huge sigh of relief and picked it up, keeping it tightly in her hand as she surveyed her surroundings.

Her heart began to rush as her eyes caught every shadow and every rustle of the grass and trees. There were four Azkaban prisoners running around out there. They could be far from her. They could be near her. They could be anywhere really, and she knew that none of them would hesitate to say the Killing Curse.

"Except Conrad," Hermione mumbled to herself as she cautiously began trudging through the forest looking this way and that. Conrad would do many things to her, but killing her wouldn't be one of them. Not until he was done with her. Sighing out of frustration, she stopped walking and leaned up against a tree. She slid down it and hugged her knees. She wanted to scream and the only thing preventing her from doing so was the fact that one of those four condemned might find her if she did.

_But it's only a matter of time…_ Hermione thought morbidly. She could hope and pray that as she wandered around the forest, or even sat right where she was, that they wouldn't find her. But that was highly unlikely. She _would_ be found. And when the time came it would be her life or theirs. As she insanely laughed at that, Hermione was quite sure that she had wanted to live to see the next fifty years. She also knew that as time went on in this horrible place, she'd be doing things she had rather not do.

"Unless of course I sway them to my side…" She muttered as an afterthought, and then felt her eyes grow wide. It wasn't such a farfetched idea. The other Aurors of course were already on her side, but if she could get the prisoners to be also they could all storm the Watch Tower, take out Thorn's henchmen, and then demand from him to release them.

It was a good idea and Hermione was going to roll with it. But first, she had to find the other Aurors. And so, she boldly walked through the forest, keeping her eyes and ears open for any suspicious activity and her wand held so tight that her hand was turning pale. After several minutes of wandering around, the sun grower hotter, and her shirt darkening to a darker shade of green due to her sweating, Hermione was beginning to think that she wouldn't find anyone until she heard a scream. She immediately turned to its direction and took off at a sprint until she found the cause.

"Angela,"

There she was, having just dodged behind a tree that just got splintered considerably by Olivia Evans' curse. Angela didn't seem to have her wand on her, and Hermione could only surmise that she couldn't find it after getting up from where she had landed.

"Leave her alone!" Hermione shouted as she stood equidistant from Angela and Evans. Evans smiled cruelly and then began to laugh.

"Must be my lucky day… Two Aurors right in my midst. Avada Kedvra!"

Hermione ducked from the spell and shouted a Stunning Spell, Evans ducking as well and then laughing once again. "Trying to stun while I'm trying to kill? That's insulting. Try to go up against this…"

Evans pointed her wand at the ground and raised it high above her head. Hermione watched in horror and a deep appreciation of magic as she saw a wall of dirt, several feet wide and feet high rise above her head. Hermione wasted no time in running, shouting at Angela to do the same who had not needed telling. The two of them ran for dear life as the wall came hurtling towards them like a tidal wave. Trees that they ran around were no match for it, being plowed down as though they were nothing. All they had to do was run, keep running, that was fine, but what they hadn't expected were the trees that they were running towards would suddenly create a barrier, blocking their path.

Hermione and Angela stopped; their backs against the trees and nowhere to go. "Close your eyes!" Hermione instructed, and she raised her wand to the hurtling wall. The barrier disintegrated within seconds, sending a rain of mud down upon them. The two of them had raised their arms up to cover themselves, but before they could rest them back down at their sides what felt like a pair of giant hands came between them and pushed them off their feet, sending them to the left and to the right.

Hermione landed hard on her right shoulder. When she caught herself, she found her entire right arm was bruised and bloodied. "Angela!" She called and rose to her feet after quickly retrieving her wand from the base of a nearby tree. She found Angela being suspended in midair, unconscious and bleeding from her forehead. Evans turned to the sound of Hermione and had no time to defend herself against the spell that came her way. Angela dropped to the ground, and Evans was thrown onto her back, her wand disappearing into the dirt. Instead of wasting time to find it, she quickly rose to her feet and charged at Hermione, the two women falling backwards onto a mass of broken tree limbs.

Hermione winced and groaned aloud at the feel of something rough and sharp stabbing her in the back, yet brought her focus to Evans' hands on her throat and her great effort in trying to choke her. The woman's knee was on her stomach, and Hermione was trying desperately to kick her off of her, her hands working endlessly to gouge her eyes out. Hermione coughed and began groping around her for something, _anything_ to hit her with. When she found it, she slammed it as hard as she could against Evans' head and felt her hands release on Hermione's throat as she watched her yell and fall over to the right and onto her side.

Hermione coughed more, rolled over onto her side and saw that what she had in her hand was a large rock. She scrambled to her knees and then to her feet. Once stable she kicked Evans. She kicked her hard in the side twice and would've done more if she hadn't spotted a wand not too far off. She ran for it, and then headed back over to Evans' who was beginning to get to her knees. Hermione gave her another hard kick in the stomach, and the woman fell down, her face to the ground and coughing onto the dirt. Hermione had the wand pointed at her back. Her hand was shaking tremendously and her mind was racing.

"…Hermione?"

She looked up to the sound of her name to see Angela rising to her feet. Hermione looked back to Evans' on the ground, her eyes halfway open, and her breathing low and scarce. _I'm not a killer… I'm not a killer…_ Her thoughts kept telling her, and Hermione's whole body began shaking like her hand.

"Is she dead?"

"…No, no she's not. She's just-"

Hermione's words were cut off from her when Evans' hands shot out from underneath her and latched onto her legs. Hermione went down instantly, and Evans' hands resumed their position around her throat. Hermione had had enough, and with the wand that she still had clutched tightly in her hand, she brought it to the woman's throat and said, "Expelliarmus!"

The force of the spell, and being at such a close range, sent Evans flying backwards and into a nearby tree. Hermione let the wand fall from her fingers and was breathing harder than ever. She closed her eyes for a moment, and could hear Angela walking around.

"Her neck's broken." Angela announced, and Hermione knew it to be true. There'd be no way for it to still be intact after getting hit with that spell at such a close range. Hermione sighed, then winced, when she felt a burning sensation on her left wrist. The screen on the wristband that was there was now glowing and a picture of Evans filled the screen, a large red X now over her face.

"And then there were seven," Hermione said to herself before rising to her feet. She took a hard swallow and watched as Angela looked Evans over. Hermione picked back up the wand and then looked down at herself, fully taking in how much of a mess she looked: a bruised right arm, blood all over it, dirt all over her, and her whole body drenched in sweat.

"Come on," Hermione found the wand that Evans hand dropped and gave it to Angela. "We have to find the other Aurors."

….

Everyone in the conference room back at the Ministry was speechless. All eyes were on Harry and Ron now who were blindly staring at the screen as it tracked Hermione and Angela walking away from Evans' body and deeper into the forest.

Atkins, who had unconsciously risen to his feet, cleared his throat. "Potter… Weasley…"

"Yes, sir?"

"If Granger gets out of this, remind me to give her a raise."

All Harry and Ron could do was nod, and when they had finally gotten their words, Harry spoke up, a thought having just run through his head. "Mr. Atkins, did you see what Hermione did when she first got there? With the ground..?"

"The ground..? What are you talking about?"

"She felt it. She was feeling the soil and then she smelled the air."

"So what..? What does that have to do with anything?"

"…He thinks that Hermione was trying to figure out where she was by doing it." Ron answered, having just caught on to what Harry was saying. It took Atkins a minute, but then he ordered two of the Aurors in the room to run a playback of when all of the Aurors landed and to focus on the environment.

"The infamous Hermione Granger," Atkins huffed, recalling what the voice-over had called her. He huffed again and then crossed his arms as he let a smile come to his lips. "They should've called her smart as hell."


	4. Patience Tied with Cruelty

"She was right on top of me when we got here." Angela was saying to Hermione. "I opened my eyes and I was on the ground. My wand was nowhere in sight and the next thing you know I'm dodging spells by that crazy bitch."

"Thorn probably did it on purpose. This place is huge. If he had all of us so spread out, it would take forever for us to find one another."

"So he picked _me_ to start this episode's round of events? I'm not sure if I should feel honored or furious beyond measure."

Hermione smiled. They had been walking for a few minutes now and if they hadn't just come from an awful run-in with Evans, anyone would've thought they were just having a causal walk through a forest. Maybe even just hiking.

"Do you have any idea on how to get out of this mess?" Angela asked. "I have no problem trying to take out the rest of the Azkaban escapees. But, it's like Thorn said. Only _one_ of us is meant to survive all of this. Hermione, I like you, so I'd really rather not have to kill you so I can live."

Hermione laughed. She nodded and then stopped their walking for a moment in order to get a good look around them before they continued. "Yes, I have an idea. I say we storm the Watch Tower. Thorn has the power to release us and I say that we make him."

"Sounds like a plan to me, but do you know _how_ to get back to the Watch Tower? We don't even how far we are from it, much less the direction we have to go in."

"I know, but we'll find it. But before we do we have to find Charles and James. And then we have to find the convicts."

"To kill them,"

"What? No, Angela." Hermione was mortified. She kept shaking her head as she resumed speaking. "No, we're not doing that because we're not murderers."

"You killed Evans."

"She was _attacking me_, and that's called self-defense. I didn't even want to do it when I had the chance and she was lying face down on the ground. When we find them we're not going to outright kill them. That's manslaughter."

"What are we going to do with them then? Reward them for their past efforts that landed them in Azkaban in the first place?"

"They're going to go with us to the Watch Tower and help us take down Thorn."

"Help us take down Thorn?! Hermione, are you insane?" Angela let out a frustrated sigh and crossed her arms. "They don't want to _help_ us. This is _their_ game! It's designed for them to win! They're not going to go against the very person that's on their side."

"Is Thorn _really_ on their side, Angela?" Hermione countered. "We know that he's dead-set against Aurors. That's a given. But in the end Vandy, Conrad, and Malfoy will still have to kill each other."

Angela sighed. She shrugged her shoulders and took a hard swallow. "You think Conrad will go along with your _brilliant_ idea?"

"…Doubt it. Might have to Imperious him. But actually, I'm kind of counting on Malfoy."

"Malfoy..?" Angela laughed. "Talk about a long shot, Hermione."

"Conrad's the long shot. With Malfoy…not so much."

"Well, all I'm saying is don't get your hopes-"

Angela stopped in midsentence and Hermione turned just in time to see a horrific sight. It seemed as though the earth had suddenly opened up and Angela just fell through. She could only be seen from the waist up, the rest of her beneath the ground. Hermione was now on her hands and knees frantically trying to dig her out until she foolishly remembered the wand in her hand. She pointed it to the ground, but before she could do anything to it, the wand dropped from her hand as she was knocked off her feet.

Hermione collided with the base of a tree, her head hitting it hard and causing her vision to become completely lopsided. She shook her head and blinked her eyes quickly, trying to get her eyesight right. "Angela!" Her head was the only visible thing now, and Hermione looked to her right to see Draco amidst the trees with his wand pointed to where Angela was almost fully underneath the ground.

"No!" Hermione climbed to her feet in a hurry and rushed over to Angela. She scooped up the wand she had dropped and threw a spell at Draco to which he deflected while simultaneously knocking her to the side. Hermione slid on the rough ground, the feeling of rocks grazing her left arm and utterly destroying the palms of her hands. She yelled in pain, trying her hardest to ignore it as she rolled over in the dirt to rise to her feet and saw Angela's last moments as she completely disappeared under the ground.

Draco stared at where Angela had once been, and then gave a smile to Hermione who had her wand in her hands once again and pointed to him. His smile faltered as her wand movements were large and swift, and he quickly leapt to the side as where he once stood became a site of a severely splintered tree and a completely vaporized bush.

"Get her out!" Hermione shouted as she threw another spell at him. Draco deflected it as he had done before and got her with a spell in the stomach. She doubled over, dropping to her knees, and coughed several times.

"You get her out." Draco snarled at her and left Hermione where she was. She took a hard swallow and looked up to see that he was gone. She took her left hand in her right and saw that the screen on the wristband hadn't shown Angela's face, but knew that it would soon. Hermione crawled over to where she had been and used her wand to dig away at the dirt, blasting it severely until Angela's head could be seen. Once it had, Hermione ditched the wand, clawing away at the ground until her face was popping out of the ground.

Hermione instantly became disgusted because Angela's eyes were wide open. It didn't look as though she was breathing, and Hermione began trying to resuscitate her magically when her wrist began to burn. Though she knew what that sensation meant, she didn't stop saying the spell. There were other people running around in the bloody forest. Someone else could've been dead. It was possible. It was _highly_ possible, but no matter how hard Hermione tried, Angela wouldn't take a single breath.

Tears sprung to Hermione's eyes, but she didn't let them fall. She blinked them back down furiously and then stood. She pointed her wand at the ground and said, "Accio wand." It took a few seconds but the wand that either Angela was holding onto or had dropped on the ground beside her shot up from the soil and into Hermione's free hand. Two wands were better than having just one, and she stuffed the other one into her back pocket before kneeling back down on the ground and quickly closing Angela's eyes. After rising to her feet, Hermione used the wand in her hand to cover Angela's face back as it had been before, kind of as an unofficial burial. She then marked several large X's on the trees surrounding her, marking off where her coworker's body was so when the Ministry came to save her, and they _would come, _that they'd know exactly where she was.

…

"Did you take note of that?" Atkins asked the closest Auror to him. He was making sure that they had marked that down so they could dig Angela up.

"I don't get it." Ron said after the show went to a "commercial break." "Not that I'm not thrilled that Malfoy left her alone, but why did he?"

"Why does Malfoy do half of the things he does?" Harry sighed and massaged his temples. "My only thought is that maybe he's leaving her for last. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"My question is why did he kill Angela that way?" Another Auror said. "She and Hermione were casually walking along. They had no idea that Malfoy was lurking about there. He could've killed them both with a simple Killing Curse. But what does he do? Shoves Hermione out of the way and then gives Angela a slow and a cruel as hell death."

"Could be the simple fact that Malfoy's a sick prick," Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Let's just hope he's that _merciful_ with Hermione. Give her enough time to think and kick his arse completely."

…

_Bloody Malfoy…! Arse…!_

Hermione kept repeating insults in her mind as well as aloud as she violently marched through the forest. Ever since she left Angela, her wand had been clutched so tightly in her hand so that it had gone completely pale and numb. She had to look down at her hand from time to time to make sure that the wand was still there since she truly could no longer feel it.

What Malfoy had done was horrible; more so than what Evans had come at them with. Evans was trying to end things smoothly and quickly; a simple death. But what _he_ had done? It was cruel. Hermione's body trembled at just thinking of Angela, and at how each time she had looked back at her, she was lower and lower into the ground until she couldn't be seen anymore.

"Do you still want to _talk_ to him?" Hermione asked herself in a taunting fashion. She huffed; taking refuge behind a tree as she casually gazed all around her to make sure that she was alone. After doing so she kept trudging along, constantly berating herself and realizing that Angela was right. Talking to Malfoy, Vandy, and Conrad into storming the Watch Tower with her was an utterly _stupid_ idea. They didn't want to talk. They didn't want to help _her_. They just wanted to kill. To kill and move on since they _were_ on a deadline after all. Sighing, Hermione stopped walking, looked up at the sky, and saw the position of the sun.

Whether she had wanted to believe it or not at least three hours had gone by. It had to be about noon now, maybe one o'clock had passed. She had about six to seven hours before the sun was gone and maybe then she could relax? In the dark it would be hard for the convicts to find her, but then again, it would be hard for her to spot them, and the other Aurors for that matter.

Hermione sighed and slowed her walk, coming up to a bit of decline and the last thing that she wanted was to fall and make a commotion about it, attracting unwanted ears. Day or night, it didn't matter. Danger was everywhere here, and the faster night came, the faster the next day would come, and the more determined everyone would be to finish each other off.

At thinking that, her wrist began to burn uncontrollably. It had come so sudden that Hermione had almost lost her footing and would've been rolling down the hill if she hadn't wrapped her arms around a tree. Her heart raced as she felt her feet slide against the ground. Once she was settled and was able to let the tree go, Hermione hesitated. The burning sensation had come from the wristband and she was afraid to look and see whose face would come up next.

_It could be a prisoner… _She thought, giving her good reason to look at her left hand. Though, as she stared at it, a large frown appeared on her face as she was looking into the eyes of James, his face crossed out like Angela's and Evans'. Hermione took a hard swallow and muffled her sobs. That was _two_ Aurors down, herself and Charles left and she wondered how long they would last. She took one last glance at the wristband again as if to engrave James' face in her memory. Whether this was to spur her on to continue fighting for her life, or to put doubts in her mind that this was a battle that she wouldn't win, she wasn't sure. Regardless, his face was still becoming a permanent picture the longer Hermione stared at it. And the longer that she stared, she realized that James looked a little…_funny_.

The picture of him was in color, as were the other two, but Hermione could tell that it wasn't like some snapshot that was taken of him to use for identification. It seemed _real_; as though his last moments had been captured on film and _that_ was what she was staring at. His face was an awful hue of blue and his eyes seemed to be puffing out of his head. It was a bit disgusting to look at really; and Hermione swore that she could make out his hands around his own neck, making the symbol that meant that he was choking.

And then that's when it hit her. The wristband had somehow taken a photo of James' last moments, and his last moments were him gasping for air because he was suffocating. Hermione let her arm rest at her side and she instantly thought of Draco. This had his name written all over it. She knew Conrad wouldn't have had the patience to wait until James died of lack of oxygen. And although she didn't know Vandy all that well except what was written about him in his reports, Hermione had the feeling that he wouldn't have had the patience for that sort of murder either.

As Hermione continued her way downhill, being careful not to take a misstep and fall, she was thinking. It wasn't like she didn't know Draco to be a patient person. Though during the Hogwarts days he was always hot-tempered and ready to jump at anyone who dared challenge him, when it came to the steps he took Draco took them carefully. He wasn't one for failing all because he was too sudden in making judgments and pursuing certain actions. That mentality followed him all through adulthood, which was why it had taken Harry up to four years to find and arrest him.

But even with this against him, in this foul little game of Thorn's Hermione found that Draco was a little _too_ patient. As she had mentioned in her inner thoughts, they were all on a schedule. If there wasn't a sole winner in all of this by tomorrow, 8:00 pm, they'd all be electrocuted to death. Call her crazy, but Hermione thought that sort of thing to be quite the precious matter. If Draco valued anything at all, he valued his life. So why waste the time killing his competitors in ways that took several seconds when the Killing Curse could do the job in just one?

It was a baffling thing to Hermione. But eventually she decided not think about it anymore as she realized that her thoughts had made her detach from reality completely; finding herself travelling down a hill and walking across open terrain absentmindedly. She determined that Draco had only killed Angela and James in those time-consuming ways because he was cruel, and that he must've found some sort of enjoyment by doing it that way.

Feeling satisfied with that hypothesis, Hermione took a cautious look about her as she slowly walked through the middle of a clearing, a mass of trees which seemed to have been cleared away left a large patch of soil in the middle of it with grass desperately trying to poke through. As she continued her walk, Hermione let out a small gasp as she took a step and began to hear an abundant amount of noise. She tightened the hold on her wand, ready to fight, all thoughts and fears about being a murderer like the other convicts having fled her mind. Though, there was no one in sight. The sound was the noise of trees whipping violently in the wind and a rope that had been under a Concealment Charm that had suddenly appeared.

Out of instinct Hermione looked down at her feet and knew without a doubt what was about to happen. A noose was around her right ankle, and before she could stop it the rope had tightened around it. Hermione was yanked by the ankle and up into the air, her wand dropping by the shock of it, and her head terribly hitting the ground as she was lifted up.

She was hanging upside down now by the ankle, and aside from the hard hit her head took the blood was quickly rushing to her head. Hermione felt heavy and then lightheaded. With her wand on the ground there was nothing she could do. Suddenly, and very foolishly, she felt like a piece of meat, a _prey_, dangling and waiting for someone to cut her loose and claim their prize. A nice little present, she was. Hermione took deep breaths, hoping and praying that of all people Conrad didn't find her this way. It would make his day; finding the object of his hatred just hanging in the air. But if this was going to be Hermione's last moments, she had rather have all of her dignity than how she was feeling at the moment.

Yes, that's what she wanted. And Hermione closed her eyes because she couldn't take the feeling of her head pulsing and the dizziness that the slight swinging of her body was producing.


	5. The Fight of Her Life

It was feeling rather cold. There was a soft, eerie _chilling_ that seemed to be riding across her stomach, crisscrossing about her navel and producing a small tickling sensation. Was it a hand? Gently tracing imaginary lines on her for some sort of amusement? No, it was someone's breath. Someone was standing very, _very_ near to her, and they were breathing onto the flesh of her stomach. If this wasn't such a dire situation Hermione would've found this action to be enticing rather than frightening, and she tried to control her breathing. She didn't want her stomach to flex. She didn't want to be moving. But however much she didn't want to, she found herself gently flinching at the feel of someone kissing her navel.

"If you're going to take advantage me, then just do it." Hermione found herself saying. Her words were very soft, yet resounding loudly in her ears. She heard him laugh, chuckle really, and she could imagine the person staring at her up and down, a smile growing wide. And then the same breath that had been on her stomach was by her ear, and his voice was calm, certain, and very much amused.

"I've never had to resort to that with anyone, Granger. And I never will."

Hermione snapped her eyes open. Draco was standing much further away than she was sure he had been. She was slowly swaying from left to right now that she had begun wriggling around, and he just stared at her, his eyes only moving as she moved.

"You're like a worm on a hook." Draco commented and then he huffed. "I wonder which fish you'll catch."

"You, obviously,"

Draco shook his head as he began walking away. "I'm not attracted to this kind of bait. _Believe me_."

Hermione was furious. He was walking away and leaving her just the way she was. She groaned out of frustration, not caring about anyone who might've heard, and called to Draco before he was too far to hear her. "Don't you _ever_ touch me again."

He stopped walking, taking a casual look back at her, and shook his head once again. "I never touched you." Draco said calmly and continued on his way.

Naturally Hermione didn't believe him, but she wasn't about to argue with him as he kept getting further and further away. It was then that she grew angry for the second time in five minutes because she remembered why she had gotten mad in the first place. Draco had just walked away. That was the second time that he had just left her; the first being on the ground near to Angela when he had told her to dig her out. She didn't know what was tormenting her more: him just constantly leaving her, or the fact that he seemed completely uninterested in killing her.

"I'm losing my bloody mind." Hermione mumbled to herself, determining that she had been hanging there for way too long.

…..

"Mr. Atkins, we've narrowed down the possible places they could be." All eyes had turned to the Aurors that Atkins had sent out to check out the playback of when Hermione had first landed. He ushered them in, glad to have the opportunity to look away from the screen after just seeing James Avery get murdered and watching Hermione dangle like some ornament.

"We're thinking that they're in some sort of rainforest, more than likely tropical." An Auror explained. "Though knowing that only narrows us down to thousands of them in the world."

"But, if we analyzed Hermione smelling the air like she did correctly, we're hoping that what she smelled was the salt of the ocean. That brings our search down considerably to those that are close enough to an ocean edge-"

"And of those, only twelve of them were heavily protected by spells and charms."

"_Twelve_?" Atkins said in surprise. "Why so many..? They can't all belong to the same bloody thing."

"Maybe they do." Harry piped up. "They can't have the show in one spot all the time. They must all belong to whoever's running this thing. The only question now is which one is Hermione and the others on."

"We're going to find out." Atkins said sternly and pulled up the screen that they had been watching the show on that had now gone to another commercial break. "I want a search team, a _massive_ one. We're going to each one of those twelve places and break down all those barriers. We're going to find them."

Everyone stood up from their seats and began following Atkins out of the room. Ron pulled Harry back for a moment and then gestured at the screen that was now gone.

"Hermione…Malfoy," Ron swallowed and his face grew angry. "What the hell was he playing at?"

"I don't know," Harry frowned, knowing exactly what he was referring to. "But let's just thank Merlin that Malfoy didn't go any further. Come on, we have to stock up on potions before we get out of here."

…..

Hermione was now trying desperately to get down. She was swinging violently from left to right, trying to use as much of her strength to reach up to her ankle. It was proving difficult, and then to her delight, she saw from the corner of her eye a long stick protruding from what must've been her back pocket.

_How could I have been so stupid!_ Her mind exploded, for she had completely forgotten that she had taken up Angela's wand and kept it with her. Somehow it was still in her pocket even though she was hanging upside down. No matter how magnificent the feat, however, she had no time to dwell on it now. Hermione took it out and pointed it at the rope around her ankle.

"Diffindo,"

The rope severed and Hermione arched her body immediately so as not to land on her head. She fell onto her back and groaned at the feel of rocks poking into her back, one or two, she was sure, managing to break skin. She rolled over onto her side and looked down at her legs. They felt awful. Her right ankle (by which she had been hanging) was numb and her left leg, the force of gravity not giving her the ability or the strength to keep it extended, was sore and practically lifeless about the knee where it had been bent for…_hours_?

She sat up. She stared at the sky, trying to find the sun amidst all the trees that were blocking it and saw its position. She was guessing, but was sure that it had to be around four in the afternoon. That meant that she had been hanging in the air for roughly two hours, and right then and there Hermione began thanking Merlin because anyone could've found her within that time frame.

And speaking of dying, Hermione checked the wristband to see if anyone else had been crossed off the list. Her answer came out to be yes and now she was the only Auror left. She sighed, nodded, and accepted it, having no other choice but to. It was hard to tell from the photo but it seemed to her that there was blood everywhere. After a few seconds she determined that Charles must've died from an old-fashioned bleed-out. Whether by Draco's hand or not, Hermione wasn't sure, but she now felt extremely uncomfortable, and even more unsafe, knowing that she was the only one left. All the Aurors were always taken out first before the convicts turned on each other. It was now three against one and Merlin forbid they all found her at once. She wouldn't stand a chance.

Hermione sighed. She found the wand that she had dropped lying near to her and she picked it up, placing it in the back pocket she had taken the other from. She looked down at her legs again and decided to test them out. She got up on all fours and then slowly made it to her feet, wincing terribly because of her right ankle and left knee. She was taking small steps in a circle to get the strength back in them, and it proved to be working. There was a small limp where her left leg was concerned, but there was nothing she could do about that except give it more practice.

Now feeling a bit more confident Hermione decided to head on her way and go into hiding. The sun would be setting in three to four hours and she hoped that by then, if the convicts couldn't find her, they'd begin to kill each other, lowering their numbers and giving her a fair shot. Hermione figured that with a place like this there was bound to be a cave somewhere or a ditch at the very least. It would provide as an excellent hiding spot until the morning.

Hermione was almost free of the clearing when she stopped. There were a pair of eyes on her, she knew it. When she turned around she found that they had belonged to Vandy, who wore a wicked smile on his face and was standing where she had previously stood.

"Merlin must hate me." Vandy said with a faux-frown. He was near the rope that Hermione had cut, and his fingers were gently tracing it up and down as though it was a sincerely precious thing. "I set up this little trap, came back here every hour and a half or so to see if I had gotten lucky, and when I finally do, my catch escapes me."

"A little lesson in setting traps, Vandy." Hermione stared him in the eyes and made sure that the grip on her wand was steady. "You should never leave them unguarded."

There was a short pause and without a warning Hermione casted a spell at his feet and took off without looking back. She flew through the forest at a speed that she didn't know she had. The pain in her ankle and leg had disappeared completely due to the sudden adrenaline rush, and she kept going, refusing to slow down to see if what she had done had any positive effects. When there was a loud explosion, a terrible snap, and a tree ahead of her beginning to fall, Hermione knew that all she had done was pissed Vandy off. She quickly came to a halt as the tree hit the ground, but the force of Vandy's next spell, though it had missed her by a few inches, was enough to throw her forward and over the tree, sliding onto the ground.

Vandy was fast. Before Hermione could lift her head up from the ground, she let out a shriek and took shallow breaths as she felt her head rise up by force, Vandy kneeling near her. He had grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked on it hard, and then took his wand and pressed it against her throat.

"Now I see why Conrad is obsessed with you." He breathed into her ear. "You're a feisty one. If only all Aurors were like you."

Hermione swallowed, feeling Vandy's wand move against her throat as she did so. She was breathing through her nose furiously and knew that if she didn't do something quickly her life would be ended with a simple spell. But what could she do? Her wand had rolled away from her hands and disappeared in the dirt and among the bushes and the one in her back pocket was completely out of reach with Vandy hovering over her like this.

"Get off of her."

Hermione's heart jumped at the voice, but she couldn't look at who had come because Vandy was still holding her head back and all she could see was the trees. Her first thought at who their little visitor was, was Draco. She was praying _feverishly_ that it was Draco, for so far during this little game he seemed to be on her side. But what their guest said next made her hope fail and her body to shake uncontrollably.

"I thought I told you that she was mine." Conrad said as he slowly made his way towards them. He stopped not too far off, and Hermione knew that he was looking down at her, probably staring obsessively at her neck and the sweat and dirt that covered it.

Vandy sucked his teeth as he gave Hermione's hair a rough tug in order to pull her up with him as he stood. She was in his arms now; pressed against the front of his body, his hot face against hers. She grimaced in disgust, though still thankful for pulling her into him like this. Though he was still hanging onto her hair pretty tight and his wand was pressing into her throat, Vandy was stupid in thinking that Hermione would do nothing with her hands which were now free and hanging limply at her sides.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard what you said down in the cell." Vandy said gruffly. He gave Hermione a fond, yet maniacal look and then smirked as he turned back to Conrad. "But we're on a bit of a schedule, now aren't we? You don't think I could've waited around just for you to kill her, do you?"

"Of course not… But I'm here now, and you need to give her up."

"Make me."

Hermione's breath quickened because she knew that Vandy and Conrad would battle it out right there with her directly in between them. Would they care if she got killed or severely hurt in the crossfire? Of course not, but she sure as hell would, and figured that she would have to cause the biggest diversion of her life. No, she wouldn't attempt to rid of one of her competitors, much less the both of them, right then and there. That would just be suicide. Instead she would just run for her life.

As Conrad made a move to cast a spell at Vandy, Hermione was making hers as well. She had reverted to the simplest of ways of defense and stepped on her captor's foot. Vandy let out a yelp as he instantly let go of her hair, too distracted by the pain he was now feeling. Hermione gave him a hard shove, causing him to stumble backwards and she quickly snatched her wand from her back pocket and did swift wand movements that resulted in Conrad being knocked over onto his left.

Hermione wasted no time and directed her wand at all the trees that surrounded her. She blasted them to pieces, sending debris flying everywhere. About three of the trees that she had destroyed weren't able to be held up any more and they all began falling one by one. Hermione watched in horror and amazement at the sight and then ran from the scene, one of her many desires being not to get crushed. As the trees hit the ground one after another, she heard a scream and knew that one of them had got someone.

_If only I could know who…_ screamed Hermione's thoughts, but she wouldn't stop. She wouldn't look back and only began to slow down when instead of running across a level ground it began to feel like she was going downhill. She came to a full stop when her wrist began to tingle and she saw Vandy's face, utterly disappointed that it wasn't Conrad. That's when she started to think.

"If Conrad's not dead, where is he?" Hermione said aloud, and her answer was immediate when she was tackled to the ground. Conrad came on strong like a brick wall and she could feel all of his weight on her as she struggled against him. She was flat on her stomach, trying to wriggle free, but Conrad was no pushover. Hermione's wand was free from her hands, and she watched it sorrowfully as it rolled away from her –far from ever being found. She was extending her arms as if trying to swim out from underneath Conrad, but he quickly grabbed them, forcing them behind her back and placing a huge amount of pressure.

_What can I do! What can I do!_ Hermione thought frantically and then tried as hard as she could to hit Conrad in the head with her own. At that attempt Conrad laughed, releasing one of her arms in order to place his hand around her throat. With one of her arms free, she suddenly thought of Evans' and managed to place her hand on what was either a rock or a tree branch. She swung it up awkwardly, sure that he had seen, and he had, catching her arm and somehow being able to turn Hermione over so that she was lying on her back.

_Thank Merlin…_ She smiled, and kneed Conrad where she knew his groin was. She had never heard a man yell harder in her life and was more than happy when he rolled off of her to attend to himself. She saw that they were fighting each other at the top of a hill and was soon to be all too pleased at watching him roll down it when Hermione noted horribly that Conrad still had a grip on her. As he went down, she went down also, and the two of them became entangled in one another as they tumbled with great speed down the hill.

Hermione could feel wounds opening up as she fell and possibly the spraining, if not breaking, of a few bones. She wondered when they would stop falling and hit the level ground, but there was none in sight. Instead her eyes grew wide as she found herself freefalling into the air, below her a deep, brown-colored lake.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The water was absolutely _freezing_, and it caused Hermione to snap her eyes open fiercely at the feel of it. The drop had been long as well as the swim up to the surface. She took a deep breath once her head was above the water and then gasped when she was yanked back down below it.

Hermione had momentarily forgotten that Conrad was just a step behind her, him too falling into the lake with a huge splash. He must've had lost his wand, but that wasn't stopping him. He would drown her. Hermione tried kicking at him to make him release her leg, but her movements under water were of no help to her. Instead she stopped struggling, allowing Conrad to bring her down to eye-level. Hitting, punching, or anything of the sort would do no good, so Hermione did a very animalistic thing.

She bit him.

Hermione drew close to Conrad and bit him in the neck. He let out a cry that was masked by the water, but only understood as one due to the bubbles. Temporarily distracted, she swam down to his feet, having caught the sight of rope that was drifting nearby and attached to something that she couldn't see. She messily wrapped it around his ankle before he realized where she had gotten to. Hermione wasn't even sure if a knot had been made, or if at the very least it would hold, but she wouldn't stick around to find out.

Conrad darted out for her, but Hermione swam out of his reach, heading towards the surface. She was running out of air and took the biggest inhale of her life once she had reached the surface for a second time. The was a loud splashing sound not too far from her and Hermione faced it, realizing that it was Conrad erratically flailing his arms, trying to get to the top. She continued swimming away, looking back from time to time to see if he was still stuck under the water. He still was, his struggles slowing down until they were nothing, the water suddenly looking as though it had never been disturbed.

Hermione crawled onto land, clutching onto the rough soil for dear life as if she would somehow roll back into the lake. She laid there on the ground, panting, and then sat up in a pile of dirt and stared at the water. Flinching in disgust, she saw Conrad's arm float atop the water while the rest of his body lay submerged underneath the surface. Her wrist began to burn and Hermione winced as she looked at it. Conrad's face was illuminated and a second later a red X was placed over it. Hermione huffed, wondering whose face would become that way for the last and final time.

…..

**Author's note:** Just wanted to take the time out to say THANK YOU! For all of you who have been reading/taking the time out to leave a review. I really appreciate it :D

Happy reading!

-WP


	6. Truce

Hermione hadn't been sure that her little bit of reasoning would take to Draco. He had been in his dueler's stance, waiting for her to take hers, but she wasn't obliging by dueling rules. She had been expecting him to kill her anyway (with her being a willing participant or not) but he hadn't and there weren't enough words to describe how happy she was. Not just because she could keep her life, but because for _once_ she felt like she wasn't alone. They were heading to the Watch Tower now, faces set to stone because of the unknown future that seemed to be hurtling its way towards them.

The sun was disappearing faster than either of them had liked. There was still light, but sure enough it would all be gone within the hour. Hermione and Draco had been walking around aimlessly for a while now. They had been taking slow steps, having no reason to speed up. All caution had been set aside. The only person that would kill the other was already there, walking in silence.

Hermione sighed. It was the only noise she had made since talking to Draco at the lake and doing so had seemed so…foreign to her. It was as if she was no longer used to sounds other than what their shoes made as they walked. Talking just seemed unimportant. What was the purpose of words here? They both knew the agenda. They knew what had to be done and it didn't need telling twice. Neither of them knew where the Watch Tower was and that's why they were just wondering around. They hoping to find something, or someone, that would lead them to it.

But they were wasting time. Hermione knew it. Draco knew it. But at this point it was apparent that neither cared. They wanted a break and they were taking it.

"…How did you kill the other two?" Draco suddenly asked. His voice had sounded so strange that it hadn't registered with Hermione for several seconds. After it had, she took a deep breath and answered him.

"Vandy was crushed. By what, I don't know. I was too busy trying to haul myself out of there to watch it happen. It was more than likely a tree. With Evans' she um…got her neck broken." Hermione, who had been staring at the ground, looked up at him to find that he had been staring all along. Disturbingly, Draco was smiling, and she turned her gaze back to the ground. "You now know how I killed your friends. How did you kill mine?"

"…Obviously you know about the woman." He said slowly, categorizing her reaction and strangely not finding any. "With the brown-haired one, that guy with a faint beard-"

"James," Hermione interjected. "His name was James."

"Right, well…with him I cut off his air supply. He died after a few seconds; more than a few, really, but I didn't count them. With the other I slashed him and he bled to death."

Draco glanced over at Hermione after he had finished describing the two deaths. He found that she was staring at him with a look that he didn't like. He was sure that she saw his face scrunched up in annoyance and the starting stages of anger so she looked away, but that _look_ was still there.

"Stop it." Draco scowled.

Hermione looked at him in confusion and then frowned. "Stop what? I'm not doing anything but just thinking."

"I know and I told you to stop."

"_Thinking.._? You can't stop my thoughts, Malfoy."

"Want to bet?" He said murderously and Hermione glanced down at his hand that was tightening his grip on his wand. She would've felt a flicker of fear and danger to her life if she didn't have a wand too. No, she hadn't miraculously found the one that had rolled away from her as she had tumbled down the hill with Conrad. And nor did Conrad have one on him. Draco had nicked one off of Charles and kept it as a spare. A few minutes into the walk he had given it to her without even bothering to ask if she needed it.

As Hermione continued to stare at his hand which was growing pale by the minute she huffed. "Well, of course you can stop me _that_ way. And it'd probably be a slow, painful, and anxiety-producing death. My emphasis on _slow_…giving me time to defend myself."

Draco grew quiet. He had relaxed his grip on his wand considerably, but the slack had gone from his hand to his jaw which he was clenching.

"That's what you were doing, weren't you? Trying to give them time to fight back."

Draco sighed. "But they didn't."

"Well, of course they didn't!" Hermione said exasperatedly. "You were trying to _kill_ them in the cruelest of ways. Anyone would've panicked-"

"You wouldn't have."

Hermione stopped talking. She tightened her lips and listened to him speak. "You might've panicked for the first couple of seconds, but you would've gotten over it. You would've gotten yourself out of it and fought back. But then again," Draco chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Not everyone's you."

Hermione smiled. "I think you just gave me a compliment, Malfoy."

"And it's the last one you'll ever get from me."

They kept on walking for a little more. They had resumed their silence, not realizing exactly how much more they were walking until the moon had fully appeared in the sky. The place seemed absolutely frightening at night, yet Hermione didn't show her fears, especially because Draco wasn't showing any. All of a sudden she felt his arm come across her chest, signaling her to stop walking. She immediately began staring at him in a state of alarm until what he said next simply made her want to roll her eyes.

"We should stop here to make camp."

"Make camp? In case you've forgotten, we're not on a camping trip. We have to get to the-"

"Watch Tower, I know, and I'm sure it'll still be there at sunup." Draco replied irately. He drew out his wand and pointed it to the ground, a large tent having just been produced. As he looked back at Hermione who was staring at him as oddly as someone could stare at another, he let out a frustrated sigh. "It's hard enough to find the bloody tower in the day, much less at night. We'll still have a little over twelve hours for vengeance when it's time for us to be on the move again, alright?"

Hermione huffed. She wondered when _he_ became in charge of this little expedition. But just to avoid having a row with him and making him change his mind about _not_ killing her, she agreed; working with him to camouflage the tent among the trees.

….

When Atkins had said that he wanted a massive search team, he truly meant _massive_. Every Auror within the ministry had been organized, leaving all matters that they had been attending to behind. Everyone was sure that the criminals of England would be having a free-for-all the moment they left. With no one around to watch or investigate them the Minister of Magic was sure that the crime rate would rise by a tremendous percentage by the time it took for every last one of his Aurors to come back.

"I still think some of us should stay behind." Ron said quietly to Harry. They were both sitting in Atkins' office while he was talking to one of the Ministers of Magic in South America. They had lost track as of to which one since they had struck up of a conversation of their own. "This whole country's going to fall away while we're gone."

"And it won't take long either." Harry sighed. He lifted his glasses some and massaged the bridge of his nose. "All of the surveillance and investigations that we were doing… Those guys aren't idiots. They've been watching their steps because they knew we were watching them. They'll know that we aren't there anymore."

"…And Atkins knows this." Ron added.

Harry and Ron glanced over at Atkins who was still deep in conversation. They turned back to each other with wry looks on their faces and clear doubts.

….

Hermione and Draco were both lying on beds a good fifteen feet apart. Once the tent was set up that's the position they had both taken, neither looking at the other or doing anything to acknowledge that the other existed. It was as Hermione was lying down that she felt it all. Every bruise, every cut, every slash, everything... Roughly fourteen hours of running for her life had finally taken its toll and she suddenly wished that she was lying in a large tub, full of hot water and bubble soap. She could smell it too, her favorite bubble bath soap. It was a mélange of melon and some other citrus fruit, the name of which was escaping her mind. But whatever it was, it made Hermione long for home and caused her to daydream.

But that daydream began to break apart at the sound of a deep gurgle. It was her stomach that was disturbing the quiet, and Hermione could see Draco smirking because of it.

"Hungry, Granger?"

"Of course I am," She grumbled. "I just realized that I haven't eaten anything in a full twenty-four hours. Aren't you hungry?"

"No,"

Hermione, who had been staring up at the ceiling, turned her head to look at him. He wasn't looking at her, but rather finding amusement in twirling his wand in between his fingers.

"What do you mean _no_?"

"Is there any other definition? I meant no, as in no."

"Ugh, forget I asked."

She turned over onto her side so that her back was facing him. She heard the squeaking of his bed and figured that he had done the same, the conversation having ended for the night. Draco sighed and instead of silence ensuing he spoke.

"The food in Azkaban isn't some gourmet meal, you know. It tastes like you're eating nothing. You put it in your mouth, you chew, you swallow, but your stomach doesn't move. And so, when you're constantly hungry, the feeling becomes mutual, and then it fades. I could go three days without eating and not feel a thing. So, no, I'm not hungry."

Though what Draco had said was completely morbid, he had answered the question either way. Now Hermione was interested in what more he had to say. Those few seconds had left her rather "chatty," and with no one else to talk to, and him seeming so compliant, she had might as well. Besides, he was the only one who could answer her burning question. She turned back over on her bed and swung her feet off of it as she sat up completely.

"How did you get here?" Hermione asked him. Draco moved his eyes toward her and she prompted him. "How did they get you and the others out here?"

"…I was waiting for you to ask me that." He said slowly, him also sitting up in bed like she had. "I was beginning to think that you never would."

"Then answer it. What, did someone just walk up to your cell and ask if you wanted a literal fighting chance at freedom?"

"Yes… In general terms that's exactly how it happened."

Hermione cocked a brow at him and scoffed. She crossed her arms about her chest and suddenly grew irate. "And you just _agreed_?"

"Of course not," Draco laughed. Hermione's face relaxed at his joyous one, and he continued laughing to himself until he calmed, choosing to lie back down. "Someone really did come to my cell that night. Some shady character who I couldn't really see but wasn't really trying to see anyway. He told me that he could get me out of Azkaban if I was willing to fight to stay out."

"And what did you say?"

"I laughed at him first. It was the best damn story I'd heard since I'd been arrested. After I got over it I told him to sod off. He gave me the offer again and…" Draco took a deep breath and placed his arms across his forehead. "Granger, I didn't think that he was bloody serious."

"You hadn't heard the rumors about what was going on? About this stupid thing Thorn calls a game?"

"Yeah, sure, I'd heard of it. But I heard of it in _Azkaban_. You hear a lot of things in there. You hear about plots of escaping that never happen. You hear about Dementors who are on your side when they're really not. You even hear about the _ridiculous_ idea that Voldemort's back, and he's hiding, jumping from cell to cell. So what did I do? I told him sure, that I was interested. Next thing you know I'm in another cell, bigger than what I was in before, with Vandy, Evans, and Conrad."

"So, you don't know exactly how you got out?"

Draco shook his head, placing his hands across his stomach. "No. I wish to hell I knew. But when you figure it out, because somehow, you always seem to figure out the bloody impossible, you let me know. I'm going to sleep."

Hermione watched as Draco closed his eyes. She yawned as he did so, finding that she was tired as well, but why wouldn't she be? Deciding that it was best she lay down as well, she stared up at the ceiling and then said the one last thing that was on her mind before Draco drifted off into a deep enough sleep.

"I need to ask you one more thing and don't lie to me about it."

"…What is it?"

"When I was hanging by that rope…did you do it or not?"

Hermione knew that he knew what the "it" was because she saw that he had tensed up. He sighed, obviously not wanting to answer.

"Yes,"

"Why?"

Draco chuckled deeply. "I've been deprived of a woman for three years now, Granger. You were just…there-"

"Waiting for you to toy with," She finished with a small scowl. "Is that it?"

"You sound upset."

"I'm disgusted. Why even lie about it in the first place?"

"You were _threatening_ me, Granger. I had to lie about it."

Hermione snickered. "You were afraid of someone who was dangling by the ankle?"

"The hell I was…" Draco snapped quickly. "But you've got quite the temper in case you didn't know. And I assume in your little fit of adrenaline rush you forgot about the wand in your back pocket. Couldn't risk you suddenly remembering that you had it and curse me because I got a little _friendly_. I would've had to fight back then. And if that had happened, this game would've been over in two seconds…"

"So bloody sure of yourself, aren't you?"

"Always… And just so you know," Draco's lips curved up into a small smile. "You've got great skin."

Hermione immediately sat up in bed at that comment, but before she could address him, Draco had already turned his back towards her, signaling a permanent end to their conversation.

…..

**Author's note: **Hi there! Just saying thanks for all the reads and reviews I've been getting. This chapter answered a few questions that you've had. Especially about Draco and his motives. Now you know!

-WP


	7. Diversions and Mood-Killers

There were twelve search teams of thirty Aurors. That was three hundred and sixty Aurors altogether and every last one that the Ministry had to offer. Harry and Ron would be in the team with Atkins, and though they would soon be shipping out to each of those areas that had been chosen as possible sites of the show, Atkins was still fighting tooth and nail against two of his best Aurors about this tactic.

"Aurors _need_ to stay here." Harry said forcefully. "We have more than enough coming along with us. Some of them can fall back."

"I said _no_, Potter!" Atkins shouted at him. "We're _all_ going, do you hear me? _All of us_,"

Atkins brushed pass him and exited his office. Harry was ready to punch the wall out of frustration when Ron's comment stopped him.

"He's scared. Stubborn, definitely, but scared… He's got to be in on it. But what I don't understand is what's in it for him? What's he going to get from all the chaos that's going to happen all over England?"

"I don't know, but if we just stand here and guess, what good is that to us?"

Harry led the way out of Atkins' office to head down to the main lobby of the Ministry. On the way down, Ron put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and pulled him to the side. "I need to stay."

"What?"

"I need to stay here. I'll grab a few Aurors to stick around with me, but I should stay behind. Something big is going to happen while we're gone and someone should be around while it does."

Harry quickly let his eyes pass all around him. He could see it now: the Ministry in shambles, bodies of the injured and unconscious everywhere… "…Atkins will know you're missing."

"Of course he will." Ron consciously looked around to make sure that no one was listening and then continued. "But once you and the other Aurors are out of here, you won't be able to turn back. All he'll be able to do is piss and moan about it."

Harry nodded and then smiled. "Still come downstairs though. As we Floo out, you just stay behind."

…

Despite the ordeal that she had been through, despite where she was sleeping and how badly covered in dirt, sweat, blood, torn and bruised skin she was, Hermione was having a great sleep. Her body had sunk into the bed heavenly the moment she had closed her eyes and the sound of crickets in the forest had sung her to sleep.

She didn't dream about anything, nor had she wanted to. If she had, Hermione was sure that she would be plagued with nothing but nightmares of dead bodies and killing techniques. Near the end of her sleep she was beginning to hear sounds, but she was tuning them out. She could hear birds and the wind and soon after that the calling of her name. In truth, she didn't want to wake up and was fighting it as best as she could. Though, her fight was lost completely when she felt someone's hot breath against her ear.

"Conrad's behind you."

Hermione's eyes snapped open immediately and in one swift motion she snatched up her wand, rolled herself out of bed, and stood on her feet with her wand pointed directly at Draco's throat. His brow was cocked in surprise, but then his face morphed into an amused one as he stared at her frightened expression. His eyes then slid over the wand that was still held, and pressed, underneath his chin.

"What an interesting effect." He mused, but Hermione was far from having a humorous nature. She looked absolutely furious and wouldn't push her wand down to her side.

"Why would you do that?" She hissed at him angrily. "_Answer me!_"

Though Hermione looked like she would kill him at any minute, Draco didn't back down. He didn't show any fear, and instead of answering her question, he asked one. "Why does he scare you?"

Hermione was caught off guard by the question and lowered her wand instantly. She took a hard swallow and looked away from him as she sat down on her bed.

"What did you wake me for anyway?" She snapped at him, her voice quivering despite the force with which she spoke.

Draco pointed to outside of the tent and she gazed in his direction, seeing that the sun was beginning to rise and bringing light back to the rainforest. "The sun is almost up. Time is pretty crucial now and we still don't know where the Watch Tower is."

Hermione nodded and stood. She led the way out of the tent and then stopped. Draco had done the same and then cursed as he looked around him. Thorn's henchmen, which seemed to be about all of them, had surrounded the tent with their wands drawn.

"Going somewhere?" One of them asked. Hermione had recognized him as the one who had been sitting outside of her cell while she had been unconscious. She turned to Draco and huffed.

"Still think making camp was a good idea?"

Draco had no time to answer, nor was she was expecting him to. They were both ordered to drop their wands and they did, having no other choice but to. After being disarmed they were escorted through the forest, neither being able to so much as whisper to each other in order to figure out a way to get out of this mess.

_Maybe we should've just fought it out then…_ Hermione thought to herself and she was sure that Draco was thinking the same thing. But even if they had, so what? If Draco had won, he would've been released back into the world. Would Hermione, if she were alive, be concerned about it? Not really… It would've been more than likely that he would've gathered some money and ran for it, falling off of the map and disappearing for good. As for herself, nothing good would've come of it if she had won. She wouldn't have been released like he would've, and instead would've been back in that cell awaiting her next set of competitors.

As she thought of it, Hermione preferred it to be just like this; walking next to Draco, surrounded by Thorn's henchmen, and being led to the Watch Tower, the illustrious building that had been so difficult to find.

….

All of the search teams had already been sorted out and had begun leaving. Harry had a feeling that everyone was wasting their time except for the team that he had been assigned to with Atkins. Atkins would know exactly where to go _and_ he would know how to get around all those spells and charms.

Harry had stuck close to Atkins. He was trying his best to distract him by asking questions, ones that required lengthy answers, and then every so often glancing behind his back. Ron was near the back of the crowd, whispering into the ears of his fellow Aurors, some shaking their heads while others were nodding, slowly and cautiously hanging back. From what Harry could tell, Ron had gotten about ten Aurors to stay behind and that would have to be enough.

"Where's Weasley?" Atkins asked. They were at the Floo specially activated to take them away and Atkins was busily trying to see pass Harry's head.

"He's getting ready."

"Is he? Because I don't see-"

"Trust me," Harry said a bit roughly. "Ron's _exactly_ where he needs to be." With that he literally pushed Atkins through the Floo, and then let himself follow after giving one last look back at Ron. It was early in the morning where they were, and Harry only just thought of it being one in the afternoon when they had left England. His watch magically shifted to the correct time and found that it was eight in the morning.

Harry and the rest of the Aurors were now crowding around the Hawaiian Minister of Magic's office. They would all be transported to the rainforest that had been indicated by boat, and one of the Aurors was talking to the Minister now while Atkins was staring at Harry in a state of alarm.

"Where's Weasley? You said that he was coming."

"No, I didn't." Harry shook his head and his face turned stern. "I said that he was where he needed to be. And where he is, along with a few other Aurors, is back at the Ministry."

"_Potter_," Atkins was growing red in the face. He tried to speak again, but found that no words were coming to him. His tense face relaxed. He swallowed and then he pleaded. "Harry,"

"The boats won't be ready for another few minutes." Harry said. "Until then, I think you should explain some things."

…..

Hermione was sitting on the floor of a cell, leaning against the stone wall and hugging her knees as she stared blankly ahead of her. Draco was on the opposite side of it, standing on his two feet with his arms crossed and pressing his back against the wall. When they were first put into the cell Draco was swearing up and down before and after Thorn's cronies left. Hermione had taken up pacing all the while reflecting on her cellmate's _colorful_ vocabulary. Both of those actions slowed and came to a halt after a half an hour. They argued after that. Mostly it was Hermione shouting at him that making camp was the stupidest idea that she'd ever heard and that she shouldn't have listened to him. Draco was shouting right back at her, not really defending himself, but rather throwing insults left and right. Once they were both done screaming at each other they had taken up the positions that they were in right now.

"He attacked and murdered my friend." Hermione said softly. Draco, who had been staring down at his feet, looked up to this sudden confession and stared at her in confusion.

"Who..?"

"Conrad. After that I made it my personal vendetta to find him. Looking back on it now I remember Ron joking that Harry had rubbed off on me. You know, the whole idea of revenge; it's not really me. But I couldn't exactly see that three years ago."

"…How did you find him? He was pretty elusive."

"He was, but he found me. Conrad knew that I was friends with her and he'd been tracking me for days. He broke into my house and…and…" Hermione took a deep sigh and rested her head against the wall. "He tried to do to me what he did to her. Ever since then Harry and Ron have been going home with me after work. I knew Conrad was in Azkaban, but still I just… I liked the comfort. So when you said that he was behind me this morning-"

"I'm sorry." Draco said immediately. "I didn't know. Honestly I was just trying to wake you up."

Hermione chuckled. "And you did." She let out a small groan as she got to her feet. She dusted off her pants though it was rather pointless to do so and placed her hands on the rim of her pockets. "How long do you think we've been in here?"

"Two hours and maybe seven or ten minutes,"

Hermione cocked a brow at him in surprise. "Well, that was precise."

"And accurate," Draco pointed out. "You learn some pretty amazing ways to tell time after being stuck in a three grey-walled room with one window for three years. That ray of sun over there on the ground looks like it hasn't moved, but it has. An excellent indicator of time."

"That's impressive."

"Now look who's giving compliments."

Choosing to roll her eyes at that, Hermione went over to Draco's side of the cell. She leaned against the wall as he was doing and ran her fingers through her hair. "I wonder what they're going to do with us. My first thought was kill us, but they would've done it already if that was their plan all along. What the hell are they waiting for?"

"…Thorn,"

"What?"

"It's only a guess," Draco shrugged. "But I'm thinking that they're waiting on Thorn. You know, awaiting the big boss' orders."

Hermione scoffed. "It takes Thorn _two hours_ to figure out what he wants to do with us?"

"Not if he isn't here." Draco suggested and Hermione grounded her teeth in frustration. "They probably Owled him, and only Merlin knows where he is and how long it'll take the bloody bird to reach him. I imagine we've got another two hours stuck in this ruddy cell."

"Two hours," Hermione repeated under her breath. Still leaning on the wall, she turned to face Draco who was staring straight ahead. She eyed him up and down and vaguely began wondering if he ever smiled, _truly _smiled, without it being attached to a thrown insult. Her answer came up a definitive no.

"Well, if we're going to be stuck here for that much longer, I know something we can do together to pass the time."

Draco snapped his head to hers so fast that he swore that he broke it. He raised a hand to his neck all the while staring at her with the most bewildered look. "What?"

"We have to do _something_ to make those two hours fly by."

Draco didn't know if his face was red or not, but it sure felt like it. Not to mention he had never felt more embarrassed in his life to be discussing a subject he thoroughly enjoyed doing. "Um, Granger… I don't think we'll need the full two hours… _Will we_?"

"Malfoy, I don't do anything quickly." Hermione said matter-of-factly and Draco had now turned his whole body towards her, completely in disbelief and modest shame. "I prefer to do things slow. It's much more productive and efficient that way. So, go on then. Teach me."

"T-teach you..? _Teach you what exactly_?"

"To tell the time..?"

Hermione motioned behind him, and Draco saw that she was pointing to the sun ray that he had gestured to earlier. He frowned, let out a sigh of relief, and shed his embarrassment all at once. He then covered all of that with a forced, but believable, smile and nodded.

"Right, the time… Yeah, why not?" Draco agreed and proceeded with the task, but not before grumbling that he was being bloody tortured.

…..

**Author's note: **Poor Draco, but I love torturing him haha. Thanks once again for all the support! Feel free to leave a review with whatever you like about the chap or story as a whole :)

Until next time!

-WP


	8. Outnumbered and Losing Time

Harry and Atkins went into an adjacent room of the Minister's office. They both took seats facing one another, Atkins with his head hung low, and Harry staring at him with a mix of confusion and disappointment.

"You were fine." Harry began. "Ron and I didn't suspect anything of you until you wanted every Auror on this."

"Could you blame me?" Atkins asked. "This is a very serious matter."

"I agree, but to leave back home unattended? No Head of the Department would do that. I'm rather surprised that the Minister allowed you."

"A few passionate words and the guarantee that at least half, if not all of us, would be back before nightfall when the real terror would begin did the trick."

"And will we?" Harry questioned. "Will we be back before nightfall? I imagine that we're at the right place where Hermione is. The others I'm sure are trying to break down barriers that lead to nothing. It won't take long for us to be back in England, Atkins."

"No, no it won't be long before we return. The boat ride will take roughly a half hour. As for the barriers…I have to keep up the part, don't I? I had planned to wait about fifteen minutes before using the counter curse for the spells and charms surrounding it. We'd go in, save Hermione and whoever else still alive and-"

"What about the other Aurors?"

"When they try to break the barriers they'll suck them in. They'll become trapped behind them."

"And you'd leave them there?" Harry said outraged. Atkins took a deep swallow and nodded.

"It'd be a hell of lot better than going home."

"…Why? What's waiting when we get back there?"

"Thorn and his men," Atkins answered. "His men, the two Death Eaters who've already won the two other games, Inferi –bodies of those who were killed in this awful mess, and-" He paused for a moment, suddenly starting to choke up. Harry rolled his eyes and pounded his hand on the desk in between them.

"And what else? Come on, Atkins, don't start holding back now."

"…And my family… Thorn's promise to bring them back to me if I did all this."

….

It was a long and boring task being taught how to read the time from a ray of light. After only a minute or so in did Hermione regret her decision in wanting to learn, but was there anything else to do? Trying to escape would've been stupid and futile, especially without wands. So, she sat on the floor of the cell with Draco sitting alongside her and showing her how telling time by sunlight was done. After about forty minutes Hermione found it quite amazing that a sunray, that seemed to be completely motionless on the ground or whatever it was shining on, did in fact move. It moved ever so slowly, but it was in motion nonetheless. Hermione smiled at this revelation and found herself very much amused.

_I've been in here way too long…_ She thought and sighed, the lesson having been over after an hour and a half now and she and Draco having resolved into silence. They were still sitting on the floor in close proximity to each other; close as in them being shoulder to shoulder, their heads resting on the wall behind them. There would've been a time when Hermione thought that she would never be as near to this man as she was right then. But then again, circumstances change.

Hermione turned her head to him and sighed. "I bet you're regretting it."

Draco turned his head to hers, their eyes completely level to each other's. She noticed how their noses were merely an inch apart and agreed that she was definitely closer in proximity to him than she had ever been.

"Regretting what?"

"Not killing me,"

"…You were walking away from me, Granger." Draco casted his eyes to the ground for a second and then clenched his jaw before looking back up. "I wasn't going to shoot you in the back."

Hermione chuckled and then grinned. "So if I was facing you, you would've done it then?"

"To be honest, I don't know what I would've done." Hermione's smile disappeared as he began talking again, his eyes taking a sharper tone as well as his voice. "Thorn talked about you to me in the cell before he let me and the others out. He said that he had a surprise, just for me. A reason to truly win the game, as I recall it... But he really doesn't know and he _really_ doesn't understand."

"Understand what?"

"That it's easier to kill someone that you don't know."

"You must've been hoping that I'd attack first then." Hermione said softly. "That way if you killed me, it'd sort of be like self-defense, not you trying to do away with me. Right..?"

Draco nodded and then smiled. "You see, you're too smart for your own good."

"As if you didn't know that already."

A silence hit them and they both laughed. Their voices bounced off the walls and echoed all around them. A little louder, and a bit shriller, it would sound like a banshee was in there with them. But neither was focusing on that now. Neither was concentrating on the fact that they were hot, dirty, and sitting in a cell. Doing that would've just amounted to nothing, so they just continued basking in the only humorous thing that had found its way to them since this whole ordeal started.

….

Since eight in the night until now, a little after five in the morning, Ron had his Aurors posted where needed. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. It was possible to say that he'd been awake for a full twenty-four hours, but no matter how tired his body felt, Ron couldn't, and wouldn't, succumb to it. He could only imagine what his Aurors were feeling. Only twelve of them had decided to come along. He had six of them spread across England in the places where the most surveillance was needed. The other six were patrolling the Ministry as he had instructed. Ron himself was with the Minister of Magic who he had forced to remain at the Ministry and who had found it difficult to believe that Atkins would be involved in something so wicked.

_Thick…_ Ron was thinking in his mind. He had never been too fond of their Minister in the first place. Him allowing Atkins to take every last Auror off duty was another reason to dislike him further. He had added yet another reason not to like him when he had advised the Minister to Owl some of the Ministry workers and bring them in. No, they weren't Aurors, but they had wands, and surely they knew enough magic to ward off a couple of tough bastards when they came.

The Minister had said no to the idea though, declaring that he and Harry were being rash enough as it was. But at the moment the man was locked in his office. Ron had made sure that it was completely secure before he went over to the Ministry Owlery. As if _not_ gaining the man's permission was going to stop Ron from Owling in workers. The Minister was trapped in his own bloody office for Merlin's sake. Not to mention, it wasn't as if Ron was the type of person to be following orders and rules. His track record at Hogwarts was plain evidence of that.

Though, Ron was hoping that it wouldn't be all for nothing. As he thought things through, he had been patrolling the Ministry since eight that night, and as of yet nothing had happened. What if he and Harry had just been looking into things way too deeply and Atkins was just resorting to a rash decision in order to put an end to a horrible thing?

Sighing, as Ron grew close to the Owlery he stole a peek through one of the open windows. He stopped immediately, seeing one of the Aurors at the entrance he was guarding. Someone, it was unclear who, had suddenly disarmed him, and now he was gaining entrance into the building.

Ron took off at a run. He went back the way he came, wand in hand and a tight grip as he entered the elevator to make it down to the lobby in a hurry. As the doors opened to let him out, he had stayed close to the inside wall. It was a good thing he had. A spell had come in, hitting the elevator back wall where he would've been standing and then bouncing back out. Ron jumped out, spells ready on his lips to cast and sending one at a man who wasn't standing far from the elevator. He was knocked out of the way easily, and Ron made his way from the elevator, keeping himself close to the walls, and his mouth dropped at what he saw.

He saw his coworkers, dead, but walking nonetheless. Ron stared in disgust as he realized that they had been turned into Inferi. Behind them were people, lots of them, a good sixty at a guess, and he knew then and there that there was no point in fighting.

"Find who casted that spell!" Someone shouted, and Ron ran for it again, not going for the elevator because that would've been too obvious. He ran down a corridor where he knew would lead to stairs and stared at them with horrible dismay before starting his climb.

_Damn this place for not being able to apparate!_ Ron shouted in his head, taking the stairs two at a time and breathing furiously through his mouth and nose. He would continue on the stairs until he hit the third floor. Then he would take the elevator up to the Minister's office, activate the Floo, and have the two of them escape. It was the only way things could work out for the better, but once Ron made it to the third floor and rushed to the elevator, he halted his stops, his feet sliding on the tiled floor. He caught his balance and saw that the doors to the elevator were opening.

Ron cursed and immediately turned on his heel. Three people had stepped out of it, one of them shouting at Ron and throwing a spell that missed him by inches, taking out a chunk of the wall. Ron turned around and waved his wand quickly, the castor of the spell being thrown back into the elevator, its doors closing as the other two joined the fight. Ron dove to the right as two identical spells aimed at him. He took refuge behind the corner of a stone wall and threw another spell. It missed, their next set of spells missing as well as Ron tucked his head back behind the wall and protected himself from the debris of the wall flying over him.

"Bloody hell," Ron swore and began running again, taking off down the hall. He grounded his teeth as he realized what corridor he was in, one that was a complete dead end, a door being the only thing at the end of it. As the men chased him, shouting spells that Ron expertly ducked and deflected to make them hit right back at the senders, he stared at the door ahead of him, still running for it, because he had almost forgotten what it was.

"Don't let him through that door!" one of the men yelled, and Ron let out a yell of his own as a spell collided with his back and he fell forward onto the floor, sliding due to the linoleum floor.

His pursuers, who were still having a bit of a run because Ron had been quite ahead, were smiling. Ron couldn't see them, but it was people like them who always smiled, and they had no right doing it until the battle was over. Though Ron had pain in his back, he rolled over onto it and did two of the quickest things of his life: he flicked his wand at the door which caused it to fly open, and then he pointed his wand at the two men, they suddenly being lifted off of their feet and thrown through the same door.

Ron rolled over onto his stomach and stared at the doorway. It was completely dark. He then smiled as he listened to the men's screaming, and he knew that that was all they'd ever being doing. That door led to a never-ending freefall, and they'd be falling for the rest of their lives.

…..

From the small window of the cell it could be seen that the sun was beginning to set. That meant that it had to be, if not seven, pass it. Four and a half hours Hermione and Draco had spent in that cell, and it was enough to figure out what they liked to eat, what they liked to do in their spare time (or what Draco liked to do _before_ being put in Azkaban), and for the past half hour they were trying to guess the other's middle name.

"This is absolutely ridiculous." Hermione rolled her eyes. Draco was laughing. He had admitted that he had never laughed so much and she believed him. He didn't seem like one who would do so in the first place.

"Oh, come on, Granger, I guessed yours. It can't be _that_ hard."

"Not hard for you. All I had to do was say that it was incredibly simple and boring and it took you fifteen minutes."

"And you can't do the same for me?"

"Oh please," Hermione shook her head and smiled. "You're not simple. And you're definitely far from boring."

Draco stared at her with a grin. After a minute or two he let out a contented sigh and placed his hands behind his head. "We've been stuck in this cell for too long."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because we're complimenting each other more than we should." He chuckled and Hermione followed suit as she realized that the cell was getting darker. She frowned and glanced down at the wristband, looking to see Draco watching her as she did so. "I've been thinking it too. No one's coming for us."

"They've probably gone; all of them… They left us here at the hand of these bloody wristbands to electrocute us to death at eight o'clock on the dot."

"Well, they're not going to find me dead on this floor without a fight." Draco said as he stood. Hermione saw that he was gazing at the cell door, more specifically at the very top of it. She began to smile as she moved to stand beside him. He pointed to the space between where the door ended and the ceiling.

"Think you can squeeze yourself through?"

"No idea, but I'll sure as hell try."

The two of them drew near to the bars and Draco cupped his hands. Hermione placed her hands on his shoulders and her foot in his hands. With a thrust upwards her hands caught the top of the cell, and with a little more effort she would try to bring her chest above the space. It would be a snug fit, but she would force herself through even if it meant losing a fair bit of skin. But before she could bring her body up further the door to the room burst open, completely catching her off guard. Hermione fell back, expecting to be falling to the ground, but instead had Draco to break her fall, his arms open to gather her and the two of them stumbling backwards and then onto the floor.

"Up to something, are we?" One of four guards asked as he and his friends walked into the room.

"Escaping," Hermione and Draco said in unison. They were both still on the ground, Draco's arms wrapped around her from when he had caught her.

"Dunno, looks like we almost walked into a show." Another man snickered and Hermione and Draco quickly detangled themselves from each other and got up from the floor.

"We thought you'd fled." Draco scowled.

"And leave our two favorite competitors? Merlin forbid… We were just waiting until the perfect time."

"The perfect time for what..?" Hermione asked. All four men began to smile wickedly and she suddenly wished that she hadn't asked.

"Like Thorn said in the beginning, there's only room for one winner here. And you two have got about a half an hour for it to be one, or none."

….

**Author's note:** I swear I love this chapter so much just for Ron. The "take charge" side of him was so much fun to write. Hope that you liked reading it as much as I enjoyed typing it out. As for Atkins…I'm curious as to whether you hate and/or have sympathy for the man.

Feel free to leave a review with any comments that you have. Thanks for all the support!

-WP


	9. A Race Against Time

Ron had no time to bask in his moment of triumph. That was only two out of sixty and until at least half of them were defeated, there was no sense in having the tiniest bit of hope. All that mattered right then was getting to the Minister, and Ron still had tons of floors to get pass.

He grimaced at the thought of it, but he wouldn't dare risk taking the elevator. Instead he headed back down the corridor he had come, peeked around the corner of the wall a few times to make sure that the coast was clear, and then tackled the stairs yet again. By the time Ron had gotten to the seventh floor, he was more than frustrated and had begun cursing at each step he took, naming each stair for a person in his life that he hated. Doing so seemed to make his steps more meaningful. When Ron had gotten to tenth floor where the Minister of Magic's office was he stopped suddenly, took refuge behind a wall, and was staring blankly wide-eyed.

He was letting off a round of curses now and knew that if Hermione was there to hear him she would've reproved him for using such foul language. But could anyone blame him? From the stairs the Minister's office was directly down the hall, a thirty foot stretch. But down that corridor, walking around at a medium pace, black all over, and downright _frightening_, was Inferi. At a quick glance there had to be six or seven of them, three of them Ron having had worked hand-in-hand with, all ready to pounce on him when he made his journey to the Minister's door.

"All for a thick-arsed Minister who wouldn't know to call in the cavalry even if Voldemort was back and sitting in his office." Ron grumbled and put a tighter grip on his wand. To make it pass them he'd have to be quick. He would have to look at the Inferi as vile creatures and not as people with whom he used to work. With a nod and a hard clench of his jaw, Ron went for it. The Inferi didn't have to be destroyed, and it wasn't like there was a pure way to do so anyway. All they had to be was subdued so that he could get to the door and that's what he did. Ron used Stunning Spells, Shield and Repelling Charms –anything that he could think of to keep the damn Inferi away from him.

It had worked. He had only hesitated once when one of the Inferi had gotten unexpectedly close to him for him to notice that it was a woman who he had had a lunch date with once. But aside from that, Ron was in. He had reached the Minister's door, blasted it open, and found his way inside. What he hadn't expected was that the moment he had entered the room he would feel such an electric shock from his head down, and then feel himself collapse onto the ground without being able to move an inch.

Though he couldn't move, he could still see and hear. He moved his eyes toward a man who was sitting at the Minister's desk. He was wearing a huge smile on his face and seemed to be laughing as well. He looked down at Ron and gave a soft tut.

"Some Auror you are." Thorn snorted and pointed to a lump of something a few feet from him. "You're late."

A second later Ron knew what that lump was, or _who_, rather. And if this all worked out well in the end, a new Minister of Magic was going to be necessary.

….

The boat ride was full of tension. Harry told all of the Aurors who were there what was really going on, and it took several minutes and the help of some of the Hawaiian Aurors to stop a fight from breaking out against Atkins. Once everyone was calmed, the mission was clear. They would make it to the rainforest, Atkins would take off the charms and spells, and they would charge in. A lot of time had been wasted and they couldn't waste anymore. Time had been cut short in the beginning when something _mysteriously _caused the boats that had come to malfunction. It took what seemed to be an eternity trying to fix them, and then it was necessary to get new boats which took even longer. It was about seven now, and if they didn't make it to Hermione soon, provided and with full hope that she was still alive, within an hour she would be dead.

The closer the boat got to shore, the paler Atkins got, and the angrier Harry became. He could hear the man mumbling, sometimes incoherently, sometimes plain and clear. He kept going on about his family and how he would probably never see them again. Sure, it was a plausible thing to be moaning and groaning about, but how could Atkins forget who they were? They were Aurors. Had he come out with this problem in the beginning just about everything could've been avoided; especially all of those deaths that happened in just six days, excluding those who had fallen that same day. But as Harry periodically glanced over at Atkins, he sighed each time, thinking what he would've done if he was in his position, and couldn't help but feel some sort of pity for him.

"We're here." The boat driver said. Atkins face resembled a white sheet by now, and when he was instructed to get off of the boat, his legs seemed to be malfunctioning. Harry had had enough. He grabbed him by the upper arm and practically _dragged_ Atkins off the boat. They and all of the Aurors walked until the energy of the charms and spells surrounding the place could be felt. Harry looked over at Atkins and egged him on.

"Go on. Take them off."

Atkins took a deep breath, swallowed, and drew out his wand. He stepped forward and pointed his wand directly in front of him. He said a few complicated incantations one after the other and everyone watched as small flashes of light signaling the end of the charm and spell appear until Atkins lowered his wand arm, turning back to the crowd of Ministry employees with a grim expression, and saying, "They're all down."

Harry nodded and was about to order Atkins back on the boat when, before he could even process what had happened, a flash of green light erupted from inside of the forest, hitting Atkins in the back and causing him to crumble to the ground. It took no expert to know that the Killing Curse had just done him in, his eyes wide open and full of shock. Harry and the others began arming themselves immediately as they saw an army of people coming out from amidst the trees and bushes, all with cruel faces and wands drawn.

"Told you he'd cave," One man said to another as he began to smirk at Atkins' body. "No matter, the Ministry's ours anyway."

"Not for long," Harry declared, and with those threatening words, curses began flying left and right and the fight of a lifetime had commenced.

…

Thorn's henchmen were leading Hermione and Draco out of their cell and down a dark corridor. Both of them were now severely conscious of the time and the wristband that could easily bring death. It had been about seven-twenty when they had been taken out of their cell. By the time they got to where they were supposed to be going and properly set up, there would be a half an hour left –a very _critical_ half an hour.

"They can't force us to fight." Hermione was whispering to Draco. "They can say that we do, but they can't do anything."

"Of course not," Draco whispered back. "But it could provide a great distraction."

Hermione caught on to his words quickly and began smiling on the inside. It wasn't an entirely _big_ smile, because she knew what could happen. Thorn's men weren't all that stupid, or at least she didn't think so. After a minute or so of feigned attempts to kill each other, they'd know what was really going on. This would have to look good, _really_ good, and as the room that was obviously to be their fighting arena came into view, Hermione decided to say what was on her mind and get it over with.

"Malfoy, if one of your spells happens to get me good," She took a deep breath and grit her teeth. "I'm glad that you were chosen for this the same time I was."

Draco took a quick glance at her and then looked back ahead of him. He nodded, and then sighed. "Scorpius,"

"What?"

"My middle name…" He swallowed and gave his upper lip a quick swipe of his tongue. "It's Scorpius."

Hermione gave him a nod of appreciation. No, she hadn't expected him to say something along the lines of what she had said to him, but his middle name was good enough. Only Merlin knew how demented of a ghost she'd be because of dying at Draco's hand after the frustration he had caused her over his stupid, bloody, middle name.

As they entered a fairly large room that seemed in poor health due to termite eaten wooden walls, there was no amount of words to describe how vulnerable Hermione felt right at that moment. First off she felt like a sick sort of entertainment to the ten men who were in the room with her and Draco. In all aspects technically she _was_ entertainment, and it made her stomach turn in multiple directions. She was tired of this. Not that beforehand she had been enjoying herself and having a great _picnic_ of a time, but by now Hermione was so fed up with everything that she was beginning not to care that within the next twenty-five minutes she would be barbequed to a crisp. She didn't know what was coming over her, but all she had really wanted to do was risk it all. She wanted to turn her wand on as many of them as possible and see what would happen at the end.

_I'd be dead…_ Hermione thought morbidly, and if that was the true end result of all of this, what was the point? She sighed. She had been staring at the ground and now forced herself to look up. Draco was standing opposite her, a good few feet from her. His face betrayed no emotion as she expected it would. His lips were closed tight, causing his jaws to clench as they were so accustomed to do doing, and his forehead bore no worry lines due to deep thought.

This all seemed so easy for him. Throughout this whole ordeal not once did Draco appear to be nervous, or scared, or unsure of the unknown. It was as though he knew that it would end up like this. He knew that at the end of the day that it would just be she and him and that all of the others didn't really matter.

_Consequences of being a good, no, _excellent, _criminal…_ Hermione determined, and as she took her dueler's stance and Draco took his that's when she saw it. She saw the look in his eyes which was his one and only weakness. It was there that she saw the nervousness and the fear that had been missing all this time. It hadn't appeared before because there was no need for it. But now…now that in such close quarters, being watched, and with only so much time left on the clock, everything mattered.

One of Thorn's men gave the signal to begin and for a few antagonizing seconds, neither Hermione nor Draco moved, both obviously afraid to shoot a spell at the other. Draco gave a subtle nod of his head, and Hermione took a deep breath. A spell came shooting out the end of her wand towards him, to which he quickly got out of its way and covered his head from the flying debris of an old box crate that the spell had hit. Whether he had moved or not, it wouldn't have hit him. She had made sure that it was several inches off. Draco did the same, speedily recovering from the bits of broken wood that had gotten on him and tossing a spell Hermione's way of which she deflected, allowing it to hit one of the wooden walls and for it to completely blow apart.

This mindless fight kept up for a half a minute before both Hermione and Draco could see that this wasn't fooling anyone. They could see their spectators' faces begin to contort with anger, and that's when they realized that things had to get real. Draco scowled and pointed his wand to the ceiling. Hermione stared at it wide-eyed as it began to cave in over where she stood. She jumped to the side, catching his gaze in a what-hell-are-you-thinking fashion, but he was hardly paying attention. Thorn's men wanted a show, and he was sure as hell giving it to them. Hermione watched as Draco manipulated the debris and sending them flying in her direction. She conjured a shield and held it up in front of her, the force of wooden planks and broken wood pieces hitting it tremendously.

At the risk of getting her face destroyed, Hermione charmed the shield, sending it hurtling towards Draco's direction. He blew it to pieces before it got to close, and while distracted with that, she directed her wand at his feet which instantly became locked together. He fell backwards, and she decided to give him a taste of his own little trick. She pointed her wand at the wooden debris that he had been directing at her and sent right at him. Draco's eyes widened and he rolled away from where he was, the lock on his legs wearing off, and he stood, watching as a loud crash was made and a hole in the floor appeared where his head would've been. He glared at Hermione who gave a, you-started-it-look, and he raised his wand to her. She deflected his next set of three spells, each one becoming stronger than the next until she found herself backing what was left of the wall.

From what she could tell of the clock that was hanging far off ten minutes had already passed and there was only fifteen more to go. At the rate they were going, she and Draco would certainly finish each other off, but if it ended now, _right_ _then and there_, both of them would be much better off. And so, instead of continuing to arm herself, Hermione ducked with Draco's fourth spell and found that he was no more than two feet away from her. She immediately lowered her wand and kept it at her side. Draco stopped. He was staring at her oddly and she was taking deep and noticeable breaths.

"Oi, she's giving up!" One of Thorn's henchmen declared, and he could be seen pouting. Neither Hermione nor Draco was paying attention to him though, and Draco swallowed, perspiration bubbles bursting from his forehead.

"What are you doing?" He asked in a harsh whisper. Hermione took another deep breath and shook her head.

"We're wasting time." She replied, and Draco nodded as he put a tighter grip on his wand. He knew Thorn's men were watching, and he placed his wand level to Hermione's nose. Her eyes travelled down the wand's body, down to Draco's fingers, up his arm, across his shoulders, and then to his face, more specifically his eyes. His eyes told her that the next fifteen minutes, _thirteen_ minutes now, were going to be horrific.

"Avada Kedvra!" Draco shouted, his wand having abruptly turned from Hermione before the words left his mouth and hitting the very man who had commented about Hermione giving up the fight.

Thorn's men went on both sides of defensive and offensive. Hermione joined the fight by casting as many spells as she possibly could. She found herself ducking behind old crates, them getting blown to pieces while her back was resting against them. Hermione bound two men together and attacked another who was about to curse Draco in the back while he was preoccupied with two others.

The clock had been obscured by clouds of debris and dust, but Hermione saw it otherwise. A full five minutes had gone by, leaving eight minutes of her and Draco's lives. As she deflected a spell from a man whom Draco promptly began attacking, she surveyed everything around her. Four were unconscious, two who were probably dead, another two she had seen fall through the unstable floor, Draco was fighting one, and…

_Where's the other?_ Hermione questioned and soon found her answer when she felt a huge tug on her hair. She was immediately pulled to the ground, her back becoming pierced with small bits of wood poking upwards from the badly damaged floor. She immediately rolled over, getting away from a kick in the stomach, and looked up at the man. She realized that he was the one she had woken up to who had been sleeping in the chair in front of her cell. His face was badly bruised, but this was no time to have any sympathy towards him. His wand was apparently lost in the rubble and as a matter of fact, so was Hermione's. She hurriedly tried to scramble away as he dived for her throat.

As she moved away, Hermione felt him latch onto her waist. And then that's when she heard it. Despite the loud fight Draco was having, him being too absorbed in it to see her or even remember that she was there, there were cracks and moans of the floor. She craned her neck to peer behind her, and then instead of trying to wriggle away from the man tightly holding onto her, she found herself flailing her arms and quickly grasping and scraping against the wooden floor as she felt her lower body swing down below her. The man, being directly over where the floor had caved in, let go of her and fell because of the immense force. Hermione felt her body become light with his weight gone, but that only eased one of her worries. Now her chest was the only thing above the floor as her hands scratched at the wood in order to keep her elbows above where the floor had made its break.

"Malfoy," Hermione called; the strength in her voice weakened by her extreme fear of falling over only Merlin knew how many feet to her death. He was far from looking in her direction, defending and attacking simultaneously. "Malfoy..!" She said more loudly. He had to have heard her this time around, but he _still_ wasn't coming to her aid. She could feel herself slipping dangerously and she resorted to digging her fingers into the wood and cringing at the splinters that were getting underneath her nails.

"Damn it, Draco!" Hermione shouted. Three things happened in three swift seconds. Draco had finally gotten the advantage over the person he was fighting, and turned in the direction of his name being called. Hermione had lost the grip she had had and immediately felt herself begin to fall. And out of nowhere she felt a hand grab her wrist, it jerking terribly because of her body weight and was now possibly sprained.

"Come on," Draco said as he grabbed her other hand with his free one. It took a few agonizing seconds to pull Hermione up, but soon she was back on the floor and as far away as possible from where it had fallen in. "You alright..?"

Hermione was massaging her wrist, it being full of pains but, surprisingly, not sprained or injured in the slightest. She was about to answer Draco's question when she caught sight of the clock. She picked up one of the many wands that were lying on the floor, scrambled to her feet, and went over to the nearest unconscious body on the floor.

"Ennervate," Hermione said hastily. Her heart was racing erratically for there were only two minutes left on the clock and they were quickly slipping away. The man slowly began to stir, but much too slowly for her liking. She grabbed him by the collar and began shaking him. "Wake up!"

The man opened his eyes, seeing Hermione first and then Draco coming over to him with his wand pointing directly at him.

"How do you take this off?" She demanded as she raised her left wrist to his face. The man stared from it, to her, to Draco, and then to the clock. He then began to smile and then he laughed.

"I won't tell you."

"Then I'll kill you." Draco snarled as he brought his wand to the man's throat. He was unfazed, however, declaring that they would be dead anyway so what was the point. Draco had had enough and motioned for Hermione to get out of the way as he pointed his wand to the man's right knee. "Fine. If we're all going to die, might as well have some fun in the meantime. Cassium,"

The man let out a yell that pierced Hermione's ears. His right knee was broken in a second, and a moment later so was his left. Draco turned his wand onto the man's right arm and just before he turned onto the left, the man yelled for him to stop.

"There's an incantation!"

"_What is it?!_" Hermione shouted. Only a little over thirty seconds remained. The man moaned it, and Hermione and Draco aimed their wands at each other's wrists. The wristbands were opened and were shaken off their wrists and to the ground just as they released a streak of electricity. Hermione and Draco let out huge sighs of relief and then began looking all around them at the damage that had been done to the room and to each other. That was when Hermione felt a searing pain in her fingers, suddenly realizing how much bits of wood must've been underneath her nails.

"Do you mind?" She asked, holding out her hands to him. Draco nodded and pointed his wand at her fingers.

"Accio splinters," He said, directing what seemed like twenty splinters from her fingers and delicately onto the floor.

"Thanks…" Hermione sighed and flexed her fingers as she took a deep swallow. As she surveyed her surroundings once again she became even more disgusted than she already was. She shivered and closed her eyes for a moment in order to block out everything that she saw. "We need to find a way to get out of this place _fast_. I refuse to stay here for another minute."

…

**Author's note:** Thanks for all the support everyone! This is perhaps my favorite chapter. And I don't know about you, but I felt the adrenaline rush reading over it. Hope I managed to get your blood pumping too!

-WP :D


	10. Home-bound for War

Harry had been momentarily blinded when a spell caught him and flung him into the shallow end of the ocean and his glasses flew off. With a summoning charm they were back where they were supposed to be and the fight had looked like it had just begun, not that it had been going on for the past fifteen minutes. That's when he noticed a few of their attackers _not_ attacking, but rather pointing their wands at the rainforest behind them. Harry's eyes widened and he immediately picked himself up from the waters and shouted at all of the Aurors who were still standing.

"Get into the forest! _Now! _They're putting the barricades back up!" Harry ran and was shouting spells at those who were actively placing spells around the rainforest that Atkins had taken down. As long as none of them finished a spell, everyone would be free to get inside. The other Aurors had heard Harry, and if they hadn't they were watching him run towards the trees and following him since it must've been for a good reason.

Those who the other Aurors were fighting had been confused as to why their opponents had suddenly stopped fighting with them, but that had only been for a split second. They soon began shooting spells at their backs, some hitting a few Aurors that Harry truly felt sorry for, but they couldn't go back. He tried his best to simultaneously attack those attempting to put the barriers back in place as well as those who were behind him.

There was only one man standing as Harry and the others reached the forest's edge, but instead of taking him down, he grabbed his collar and pulled him to the ground. This action, though unintended, had saved Harry from getting hit with a spell. But he was unconcerned with that at the moment.

He held his wand to the man's throat and nearly choked him by pressing it too close. "Put the barricades back up!" Harry ordered. "New password, phoenix; Do it _now_!"

Before Harry pulled the man up to his feet, he commanded all of the Aurors to send one strong, offensive spell that could subdue those who were still fighting and summon their unconscious coworkers to them. They did so, and all Aurors were on the side of where the forest started and, just for the moment, every attacker was down.

"Put them up!" Harry shouted, and the man, having no other choice, did as he ordered and soon the energy of the barricades could be felt. When that was done Harry snatched away his wand before he could use it and bounded his hands behind his back.

"What more do you want?" He snarled, and Harry roughly grabbed his arm and pushed him forward, all of the remaining (and conscious) Aurors staring at him with disdain.

"The Watch Tower," Harry replied snappily, recalling what Atkins had said about it. "Take us there."

…..

Hermione was pacing the room, making sure not to fall through any of the holes in the floor that were there. She had been thinking out loud, trying to figure out how she and Draco could get out of the "horrible hell-hole" that they had been thrust into. She doubted that there'd be a fireplace anywhere nearby, and she knew that apparation wouldn't work in the slightest, especially because the barricades were more than likely still up.

"I suppose we could just drag him along and make him take the barriers down. But do we even know how to get to the bloody shore from here? Everything looks the same!"

"I think you're a little too worked up about this." Draco commented as he rolled his eyes at the man bemoaning his broken limbs. Hermione stared at him in shock and huffed.

"You've got to be kidding. What, now that everything's over this little forest is looking like a paradise?"

"Well, not to diminish from your thinking, but compared to Azkaban, everything looks like a paradise." It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes and Draco simply smiled as he stuffed his wand in his back pocket. "We'll find a way out of this place. That's for damn sure. But you need to relax for a moment. Might as well take the time to do so since there's no threat to…"

Hermione had been peering through the giant hole in the wall that had been made by one of her spells. She had been waiting for Draco to finish his thought but nothing more had come from him. She turned back to look at him to find that he had his ear pressed up against the door, his forehead creased in alarm.

"What is it?" Hermione asked as she walked over to him. He took out his wand form his pocket and held it tight.

"They're people here. I can hear voices."

"Thorn must be back."

That was just what they needed; to be suddenly in the clear and then immediately taken out of it. Hermione took out her wand as he slowly opened the door. Draco led the way out of the room and headed down the hallway with Hermione at his heels. He was right. There were others beside them who were in the Watch Tower and it seemed like a lot judging by the increased amount of creaks the place was making.

"I say we attack hard and fast." Draco whispered as the voices grew louder and shadows began to appear on the wall ahead of them. "Agreed?"

"Agreed,"

They were both leaning against the corner of a wall where it led down an adjacent hallway. That's where the voices were coming from and coming closer. Without wasting a single second, Hermione and Draco jumped from where they were with their wands drawn. A spell came at them quickly and Draco deflected it. But before the battle could truly be fought a voice erupted from the crowd of twelve or so saying, "Stop!" That voice caused Hermione to lower her wand instantly and a smile to come to her face as she ran into the mass of people.

"Harry, I knew you'd find me!" She shouted as she threw her arms around him. Harry happily received her in his arms and held her tight, more than ecstatic that she was alright and lived to tell the tale from this terrible mess. "Merlin, I thought you were Thorn. Where's Ron?"

"He's where Thorn is." Harry replied grimly, and Hermione stared at him confusedly as he surveyed all of the bodily damage that had been done to her. "Hermione, this whole game wasn't just for sick fun. It was a diversion. Thorn wanted to get into the Ministry and take it over. That's why Ron stayed behind to try and ward him off as best as possible. I hate to think what's going on back there at the moment."

"It can't be _all_ bad, can it? With the amount of Aurors we have in the Department-"

"They're not there."

"What? What do you mean they're not there?"

"I mean that Atkins was in on it. Thorn had taken his family, and it was Atkins' job to get every last Auror away from the Ministry and he did."

"How the hell did he manage to do that? The Minister would have to agree!" Hermione was in disbelief and even more so when Harry said that the Minister was a man very easily persuaded. She then sighed and ran a hand through her disheveled hair. "Then we need to go. Ron's in awful danger."

Harry nodded to her and then brought his attention to a few Aurors who had walked a small distance away from them. "Take him away."

Hermione turned around to see exactly what he was talking about. She had been so excited to see him that she had completely forgotten that Draco was there. And then she realized with horror that while she had been talking with Harry Aurors had taken Draco and bound him by the hands. They were preparing to walk away with him but she immediately stopped them. "You can't. They _can't_." She addressed Harry, whose face showed confusion.

"Why not..?"

"Because," That was a good question. What did Hermione think was going to happen? This whole ordeal would be over and she and Draco would be able to go back out into the world? In one sense that was true, but his world was in Azkaban. He still had a sentence to finish consisting of nine more years, but even then, she still found herself protesting his current arrest back into custody.

"The Ministry's in chaos, Harry. There's only us to take it back and we need all the help we can get." Hermione sighed and settled her eyes on Draco. "Even his…"

Harry took a second to grind his teeth and he ran his hands through his hair because he knew she was right, even if her reasoning wasn't primarily for the good of the Ministry.

"He'll run. We're all going to be fighting for our lives and he's going to take off. None of us are going to be watching him-"

"I will." Hermione said firmly. "I'll watch him. Now can we go? We're wasting time arguing about this."

Harry, still obviously on edge about this, nodded and Draco was let out of his restraints. They all began to head down stairs that would eventually lead out of the Watch Tower. Harry had resumed his position at the front of the small army, side-by-side the man whom he had forced to take him and the other Aurors to the Watch Tower in the first place. Hermione and Draco had stayed more towards the back, mostly walking in silence until Draco had decided to speak.

"You're going to be on my arse until I'm back in custody, aren't you?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded and then sighed as she looked up at the night sky. "But some part of me is hoping that I can trust you not to run. Can I trust you?"

"I won't run." Draco told her and then gave her a crooked smile. "But I'll walk. Plenty of time for you to catch me."

…

Ron had been completely paralyzed when he came barging into the Minister's office. Though talking proved pointless, he could still hear and unfortunately could still feel –something he wished had gone with his speech because he had rather not felt that kick to the stomach by Thorn.

But that had been an hour ago, maybe a little more. Ron had been taken several feet underground to the holding cells and locked away. He had been confused as to why they didn't just kill him like the Minister, but it wasn't like he was regretting it in the slightest. His only wish was that he knew what was going on out there. Without a doubt his fellow Aurors were either captured, unconscious, or dead. Those bloody Inferi were wandering about, Thorn was probably smiling triumphantly while sitting in the Minister's chair, and his henchmen were probably scattered about, two of them standing outside of Ron's cell.

"What are you doing down here?" One of the guards said. "Thorn'll be pissed as hell to know that you left your post."

"He's pissed enough as it is."

Ron's ears perked up at that and he carefully made his way to the cell door, pressing his ear against it.

"There's news about Granger and Malfoy."

"Oh yeah, it's long pass eight in the night there isn't it? Who won?"

"I'm bettin' it's Granger. She's the bit of the vicious one when she's ready."

"Well, come on, who wonit?"

"Technically they both did." The third man grumbled. "Potter came to the rescue as always. The bloody pair went along with him."

"That doesn't make any sense. How the hell did they get those bracelets off?"

"Morgan was unconscious but came to, to see it happen. Apparently Malfoy broke a couple of Rowan's bones to get the incantation out of him. Once he and Granger were gone, Morgan got up and sent Thorn a Speed Owl."

"Effing coward," A guard spat on the ground and then sucked his teeth. "He was awake. He coulda stopped 'em."

"And get his arse blown to bits? Not bloody likely… I would've done the same. But either way, Thorn's a raving bloody lunatic, and Potter and the gang are on the way. It's only a matter of time before they get here."

Ron backed away from the door with the widest smile the muscles in his cheeks could produce. He was more than happy to know that Harry had made it to Hermione, that she was okay, and that they were returning to the Ministry. Only a matter of time was right, and then the real show would begin.

….

Hermione had only learned how to tell the time from the sun, not from the moon. She was at a complete loss as to what time it was now, though Draco happily informed her that it was almost nine. She asked Harry where they had been, and he replied that they were in Hawaii, a ten hour time difference.

"Seven a.m." Hermione mumbled to herself in reference to what it was in England. She then began wondering what Thorn would do with all of the Ministry Employees. They would begin to arrive at eight on the dot, and then what? Kill them all as they entered? She supposed that he could hold some of them in the holding cells, but that would only hold so many. Yes, it would be murder, or even the Imperious Curse so as to have more people on his side. Either way it would be an unhappy turn of events.

The boat came ashore and everyone got off, heading in the direction of the Ministry that was in walking distance. Hermione stared all around her; specifically at the countless amounts of stretchers that were levitating towards the Ministry. Three of them carrying Hermione's fallen coworkers, to which she cast her eyes at the ground not wishing for it to be true. Draco, who was walking beside her kept his gaze averted, a look of guilt flickering across his face since he was the cause of their deaths.

The injured Aurors were sent to the local hospital. Those who were dead were arranged to be sent to England in three days, by then, the hope being, the threat would be taken care of and future threats thwarted. As of now, all who were able-bodied and willing were standing in the Hawaiian Minister's office awaiting their orders.

"What's going to happen next?" one of the Aurors asked, looking towards Hermione rather than Harry. She was slightly surprised and had preferred that after everything that had just happened shewould be the one _taking_ orders, not giving them. She sighed and placed her hands at the rim of her pants.

"Thorn's not stupid." Hermione started to say. "Everything's that happened so far proves that he thinks ahead."

"I'd bet a thousand galleons the Minister's already dead." Draco imputed, causing a snort to come from someone and then a disdainful laugh.

"Nobody was asking _you_, Malfoy." The owner of the laugh said angrily. "I don't even know why you're bloody here."

"_Enough_, Asher," Harry said sternly. "He's here because Hermione says so. Go on." He urged her, and Hermione took a deep breath as she continued.

"...He's going to know we're coming, and he's not going to hide either. Once Thorn spots us he'll be dead on and fight until no one's left. Our best bet is to fight like hell. Find a way to get some of the other Ministry employees there. The fighting should be a big enough distraction so that…so that we find Ron and Thorn both."

"Then it's settled." Harry nodded. "Attack with force and don't stop."

…..

A few Aurors were sent to other Ministry employees to inform them of the situation and to form a little army. Of those who were left, things looked bleak. There were only twelve Aurors aside from Hermione and Harry, and of course there was Draco whom Hermione was sincerely hoping wouldn't cut back on his word and run the moment they all Flooed to England.

_If he does, can I blame anyone but myself?_ Hermione thought and sighed, saying no. The small band of people that they were, they still split up into groups: three groups of four Aurors, and then Harry, Hermione, and Draco as their own special unit. There were three main entrances to the Ministry, though plenty of others, but of course there was no possible way to cover those as well. Two groups would take the front, it being thought of that it might be the most guarded, another the back, and Harry, Hermione, and Draco using the visitor's entrance. Though, when they Flooed to a Floo Spot not too far from the Ministry a problem could already be seen.

"Damn, what the hell are they doing so far from the Ministry?" Harry exclaimed, and Hermione and Draco both gave each other knowing looks.

"It's like Granger said, Potter." Draco said with his wand gently rolling between his fingers. "Thorn knew we'd be coming."

"The moment they get taken down hiding all inconspicuousness will all be shot." Hermione pointed out, and Draco, who had been crouching behind the corner of a brick wall like his counterparts, stood.

"Then there's no point in waiting, now is there?" He asked them and without warning fled from their hiding spot.

"Malfoy!" Harry called after him, but Draco wasn't listening. There were four of Thorn's men casually up the block that was one away from the Ministry. And among them were people; some out for an early morning jog and others looking as though they were heading off to work. With so many muggles parading about, no fighting would take place. But they would be taken to the Ministry as prisoners without a doubt and what sort of surprise attack was that?

Hermione watched in confusion and annoyance as Draco slipped his wand out of sight and walked over to one of Thorn's men who was sincerely surprised to see him walking directly into his midst. Draco placed his hands behind his head and was talking. He nodded in the direction of where Harry and Hermione were and they nervously glanced at each other.

"We need to get out of here." Harry said quickly, but before they could move there was a loud _crack!_ Two of the guards had apparated in front of them and were smiling wickedly. "…You really shouldn't apparate in front of muggles. Every wizard knows that."

"'Course they do." One of them chuckled and grabbed Hermione by the upper arm and held her close to him as the other pointed his wand at Harry. "But luckily for us, nobody was lookin'."

Harry and Hermione were calmly escorted pass muggles, across the street, and down the block towards the Ministry. They were both walking in line with Draco now, to whom they were trying to figure out what the hell was going on through his head. He however, wasn't paying much attention to them. In fact, he seemed to be in his own little world.

As they grew near to the visitor's entrance, Hermione could see a faint smile forming on Draco's lips. She scrunched up her brow in confusion but knew, that somewhere deep in that mind of his, there was a plan brewing. When they all piled into the visitor's entrance and they were lowered further and further beneath London's streets, Draco was smiling even broader now. Hermione tried as subtly as possible to bring this to Harry's attention, but he had already had his eye on him from the moment he had moved from their hiding spot.

"You'll be in a nice lil' cell with your redheaded friend in a moment." The guard with the strong hold on Hermione said. She gave a look around her and saw that they were on the floor with all of the holding cells. They were heading down it now; Hermione's, Harry's, and Draco's wands having been taken away and Hermione and Harry being dragged along behind Draco. That was when Hermione saw the motion of Draco's hand, surprisingly unnoticed by the guards. By the way he was moving it, it almost seemed as though he was trying to tell her to get out of the way. She caught Harry's eye and he had seen it too, now on the lookout for something to happen.

"You should watch your step." Draco said, not to her or Harry, but to the man walking beside him. He simply stared at him and huff.

"Oh yeah..? What for..?"

"Because this might hurt a little bit."

Draco hit him in the throat in one swift motion. The man was a loss for breath as Draco bent over slightly and roughly knocked himself into him so that he was over onto his back in a second. And as Draco hovered over him to deliver several punches to the face, Hermione had elbowed her captor in the stomach and retrieved her wand from him which was protruding out of his pocket. A spell quickly went from her wand into his chest, him falling quickly and his head hitting hard on the cement floor. She turned to see Harry giving his own captor a knee kick to the stomach and a rough push that resulted in an awful face blow to the stone walls. Harry fished his wand from him and then looked pass Hermione, who was now staring at Draco who was holding his wand in his left hand and waving around his right as if exercising it.

"What?" He asked casually, and Harry audibly growled.

"What the hell were you thinking, Malfoy? Do you realize how risky this was?"

"I was trying to get us in here. And we did."

"_Malfoy…-_"

"Harry, don't." Hermione urged as she placed her hands on his chest to stop him from possibly lunging at him. "We don't have time for this. We need to get Ron. Only Merlin knows what's going on upstairs."

…

**Author's note: **Oh, Draco, Draco, Draco… You may hate his methods, but he sure does get the job done!

Thanks for all the support everyone! So you're not caught off-guard, just wanted to say that this story will end on chapter 12! BUT as I may (or may not?) have mentioned, this story is part of a trilogy so more will definitely be on the way :D

-WP


	11. Searching

Against Harry's wishes, the three of them split up. The secret sound had been made by the other Aurors to let them know that they had made it inside. And even if that sound hadn't been heard, the various shouts of people upstairs, hard thumps, and things breaking told them that fighting had begun. Harry was pressed to run upstairs and join the fight while Hermione and Draco were left alone. Their specific goals were clear: get to Ron and find Thorn. Hermione felt a bit selfish and quite the insignificant piece of this battle since her and Draco's task was so narrow and focused. While everyone else would be fighting only Merlin knew how many people, they only had two tasks; one of which would be executed within minutes.

Hermione and Draco quickened their steps down the end of the hall, making sure to keep their backs to the walls. Draco peered around the stone wall to see what they'd be up against. He swore and leaned his head against the wall as he angrily clenched his jaw.

"What? How bad is it?" Hermione moved pass Draco and she too let off a round of swears. "Six? Are they kidding? Ron's a good fighter, but there's no way that he'd need six guards. _You_ don't even need six."

"I think you just insulted me, Granger." Draco huffed as he licked his lips once. "Attack swift and hard, yeah?"

Hermione sighed and nodded. Her first thought was to make the fight as fair as possible and that's what she did. She brought her wand in direction of the weak ceiling and caused some of it to break apart. Several pieces of stone fell and hit two of the guards on the head. They were out cold and this got the attention of the four remaining guards who had been idly standing around as though they were safe from the tumult several feet above them.

Draco, never being one to fight from a distance, charged in and swung his wand in different directions which resulted in the guard closest to him to reach out to his left leg in pain. It had been bent in the opposite direction than a person's knee was supposed to go. Another wave of his wand and the man's arms were also being bent in directions that were unnatural. Hermione was sure that Draco would've done more if another guard hadn't started attacking him.

Hermione was mortified to see Draco clipped in the hip by a spell, but she had no time to react to it. She was dealing with a two-on-one situation and diverting her attention as much as it was. She was hit between the shoulder blades by some unknown spell and heard an awful crack of it as she fell forward into the wall. Despite the pain she was in, Hermione spun herself around and directed a spell at one of the guards' feet so that he could fall forward before turning her wand on the other. Her spell got him in the face and a second later he was complaining of not being able to see. Hermione rushed forward and kicked him in the back of the knees. As he went down, he grabbed a hold of her left arm. It was in pain, emanating from her left shoulder. She pushed him off of her and kept in her groan as the man she first attacked began to go after her again.

Hermione dodged his spell and covered her head from the debris of the stone wall she had gone behind. She jumped out from behind it and faced another attack, quickly crouching down to the ground and deflected his next spell which narrowly missed Draco who was fighting with only one opponent on the other side of the corridor. Still on the ground and too close to him for her liking, Hermione made use of her feet and kicked the guard in the shin of his left leg. He yelled in pain and absentmindedly dropped his wand. Hermione took it up instantly and, with both of them in hand, shouted, "Stupefy!"

The guard was on his back and knocked out within seconds, just in enough time to see Draco falling to the ground, hitting his head, but not letting that stop him. One last spell got his opponent good and he dropped to the ground. Draco took a hard swallow and looked down the corridor in order to catch Hermione's eye. They both stood at the same time and made over to each other, careful not to step on the unconscious bodies in the way.

"You're limping." Hermione noted. Draco looked down at his right leg and then put his hand to the left side of his lip. He removed his hand to see a bit of blood smeared on his fingers and chuckled as he wiped it off on his pants.

"I'm bleeding and you're worried about my leg." Draco shook his head and placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder which made her wince. "You're worse. Your shoulder's dislocated. Stand still."

Hermione did as he said and grit her teeth hard as Draco expertly popped it back into place. She massaged it as she went to the cell door the guards had been standing in front of. "Ron?" She called. Ron eagerly called back and Hermione blasted the door to bits. She stepped over the pieces of door and jumped into Ron's arms, asking loads of questions and making sure that he wasn't as injured as she was horribly thinking.

"'Mione, we don't have time for you to be poking me everywhere." Ron said with a grin. "Come on, we've got a fight to win."

Ron led the way out of the cell and stopped immediately. Hermione stared at him oddly and then realized why he had been suddenly paralyzed. He had spotted Draco, and his face had tensed up completely as well as his fists.

"No!" Hermione shouted as Ron snatched the spare wand in her hand, stomped over, and grabbed Draco by the shirt and thrust him against the wall. The wand was securely in his hand and was pointed directly between Draco's eyes.

"Ron, don't! He's helping us!"

"_Helping?_ Are you insane?"

"Are you?" Hermione countered. She was standing next to him now, desperately trying to use all the strength she had to lower Ron's arm. "We're greatly outnumbered and we need all the help that we can get. We haven't the time to be picky. _Please_, Ron."

"Don't worry, Weasley." Draco said haughtily. Obviously he wasn't fazed by the fact that he had a wand stuck in his face; choosing to stare right pass it and at Ron. "I'll be back behind Azkaban walls before you know it."

Ron's grip on the wand grew tighter. He stared Draco down, swore heavily and then, having no other choice, let him go. "Watch him." He directed at Hermione and gave Draco one last harsh look before ignoring him. "What's the next move?"

"Speed Owls…loads of them. You need to get a message to every Ministry worker. They'll be on their way soon and it's best that they know what they'll be walking into and be prepared."

"Sounds good to me." Ron nodded and then stared after Hermione curiously as she began to take off down the corridor in the opposite direction with Draco at her heels. "Wait, wait! Where are you going?"

Hermione stopped and looked back. Draco halted as well, but rolled his eyes in annoyance as he began tugging at her wrist. "Thorn… We're going after Thorn."

"Alone?"

"She's not alone, Weasley." Draco said irritably. "She's with me. Let's go, Granger. We're wasting time."

"We'll be fine." Hermione said to Ron and then, without waiting for his response, she took off with Draco down the rest of the corridor and made a left. They ran hard and fast, their eyes scoping out their surroundings as they did so in case someone jumped out from a corner.

"Thorn's probably in the Minister's office." Draco breathed. They had stopped for a moment to make sure no one was guarding the stairs. He cursed at realizing how many flights they'd have to climb, but taking the elevator would be sure to alert someone and it would be downright stupid not to think so. "You can curse me in the arse if he's not there and out there actually fighting."

Hermione rolled her eyes and also took a mental note of what he said. But even so, she agreed. Thorn wasn't the type of man to be out on the front lines. Just like in Hawaii, his henchmen did everything. All he ever did was dictate and this would be just the same.

"Granger, look out!"

Hermione felt herself being pushed to the side, and she found herself groaning in pain at having her previously dislocated shoulder shoved onto the wall. Draco sent a spell at someone she couldn't see, but as he ordered, she stayed close to the wall and then watched as a man came tumbling down the stairs. She didn't stop to marvel at it and she and Draco began to hurry up to the Minister's floor faster than ever. Another man came towards them on their way up, and Hermione ducked low to avoid his spell and shot one towards his knees. He buckled forward and fell down the stairs just as the person before him. On the floor below the Minister's an entourage of people could be heard coming down the stairs, and tackling them on the stairwell wouldn't have been the wisest thing in the world.

"Let's go!" Hermione ordered as she reached for Draco's hand. She slid a finger between two large stones on the wall and a door appeared. She pulled him with her through the door and hastily closed it behind them so it could seal itself back up. "Lumos."

Light illuminated where they were and Draco was surprised to find that they were on a stairwell. He looked behind him to find that the stairs continued a long way down and then scoffed. "You've got to be bloody kidding me, Granger. We could've used these secret stairs all this time?!"

"Oh, don't lecture me, Malfoy. I only have clearance to open it on this floor."

Draco rolled his eyes as he muttered angrily about clearance and followed Hermione up the stairs. It wasn't long before they were on the Minister's floor. Hermione used a spell to cause the stone wall in front of her to become a one-way mirror. She was awed at what she saw, and so was Draco once he stood on the same stair with her.

"There's no one here." Draco declared, and Hermione, with caution, revealed the door that would lead them out onto the floor. She lead the way first, Draco closing the door behind him once he was standing beside her. Though neither one expressed it out loud, both were expecting an ambush. Once they had stepped out onto the floor there should've been a barrage of fighters surrounding them and then they would have to fight for their lives. But nothing like that happened. The floor was just quiet, and dreadfully so.

Hermione and Draco stared at each other in amazement, and, following through with what they had intended on doing in the first place, made their way to the Minister's office. The door was slightly ajar. Although no matter how sketchy this seemed and how easy things were being made for them, they opened it, finding the office just like the hallway: empty.

"He's not here." Hermione declared as they stepped through the door. "He _really_ isn't here."

Draco sighed. He placed a hand on the back of his neck and swore. "So, do you want to curse me in the arse now, or later?"

Hermione wasn't sure if his question was rhetorical or not, but either way she wouldn't have had the time to answer it. All of a sudden the floor beneath them disappeared and they were falling. It was a complete free-fall, and all Hermione could think of was that whenever she landed, if there was nothing _extremely_ soft and bouncy to break their fall, she and Draco would be dead. As an answer to her prayer there was indeed something like she had described at the end of what seemed to be a ten-story drop. They landed on a trampoline like substance, gently bounced, and fell off to the side, landing and rolling on the hard ground. What they had landed on vanished into thin air, and in the corner of the room they had fallen into was the man that they had been seeking.

…

**Author's note:** I swear nothing's harder for me to write than a fight scene, but I like the way this turned out :). Next chapter will be the last! I know this hasn't been very dramione heavy (sorry), but since it's going to be a dramione trilogy, their relationship will grow throughout. It'll definitely come out in the sequel which will be up soon after this one finishes. No long wait, I promise!

-WP - Oh, forgot to mention! I posted a new fic a few days ago called "The Cards You're Dealt." Just thought I'd give you a heads up in case any of you were interested in reading it! :)


	12. Condemnation

"You two are some ballsy, bloody cheaters." Thorn spoke, clearly agitated and annoyed with the pair of them. Hermione and Draco couldn't help but share smiles with each other at the accomplishment achieved of fully pissing Thorn off. "When I said there was to be one winner, I meant it."

Draco chuckled as he stood and helped Hermione to do the same. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but Granger and I don't really like to play by the rules."

"You're not lying on that one. But I hate to tell _you_ this, but I get what I want." Thorn turned to Hermione and huffed. "I know your M.O. Miss Granger. If you can save someone, you will. And you, Mr. Malfoy; well, you don't really give a damn about anyone but yourself, now do you? So what can I leverage you with, then?"

"Leverage for what, exactly?" Hermione asked.

Thorn grinned. "To make you fight."

Draco stared at Thorn in disbelief and anger while Hermione shook her head. She loosely crossed her arms about her chest with her wand firmly placed in her hand. "You can't make us fight." She said firmly. "Even if you do have more of those dreadful little bracelets."

"Oh really..?" Thorn smiled some more and cracked his knuckles with a look of utter enjoyment all over his face. "It's funny you should mention those." He pulled out one from his pocket and gently twirled it with his fingers as Hermione and Draco's faces drained of color. "Like I said, Mr. Malfoy here doesn't care about anyone but himself. So I think that's a good incentive to fight, don't you?"

Before Draco could even think about disarming Thorn, the literal ticking time bomb had left Thorn's hand and clamped onto Draco's wrist. Draco began pulling and pushing on it to get it off, but they all knew that that bracelet wasn't going anywhere. Hermione looked away from him and turned to Thorn who was now presenting her with the bit of leverage that supposed to be making her fight. When she saw it, she took a hard swallow.

It was Atkins' family; his wife, two sons, and a daughter all bound and gagged and staring at Hermione and Draco with pleading eyes.

With a flick of his wand, Thorn caused bars to rise from the ground and create a barricade in order to block Hermione and Draco in. Thorn was giddy with excitement and turned his wand on Atkins' family. "Ten minutes… That's all you have. In ten minutes, Mr. Malfoy, you'll be dead. In ten minutes, so will Atkins' precious family. Unless, of course, one of you wins… Have at it then."

There was no playing around this time and their time was short. Draco would die soon unless that bracelet got off of him. It had a keyhole on it unlike the other bracelets which meant that the incantation wouldn't work. More than likely the key to his release would have to be taken from Thorn and getting him to do so would prove a difficult task. Hermione and Draco stared at each other. Body language spoke where words failed them and what they realized, and had known from all along, was that neither wanted to kill the other. Both had the ability to do it, but could they live with the guilt afterwards? It would be stupid to deny a fondness for the other no matter how faint and no matter how much anger and sarcasm brewed between them. Relationships between people worked in many different ways and theirs, anyone could attest to, was one of a kind.

They'd have to play this right and there was no room for mistakes.

Hermione apologized for this in her mind. She sent a hard spell at Draco that caused him to stumble back onto the bars that Thorn had conjured, his shoulder getting into one of the spaces. She sent another spell of the same magnitude and it got him the back. His body twisted in an awful way that gave his shoulder a nasty pull.

_Fight back, damn it!_ Hermione thought bitterly. She would end up killing him if he didn't retaliate and defend what she would throw next. Luckily Draco came to his senses and attacked just as swiftly as she did. He hadn't forgotten that her shoulder, though fixed, had been injured. His spell clipped her there, and Hermione couldn't control her cries as pain shot from her shoulder, up and down her arm, and across her shoulder blade. Distracted, she didn't see Draco's next spell and soon felt her wand drop, arms having been twisted around her back and her body press against the wall. Hermione took a moment to mentally scoff that he used magic to do something he couldn't do himself and soon felt his breath on her ear.

"Struggling will only make it hurt." Draco whispered. He had taken up where the spell had left off and was holding her arms behind her back tightly, making sure she couldn't move from the wall. This time Hermione scoffed out loud.

"You're not really supposed to hurt me." She whispered back. She attempted to step on his foot but missed horribly. In one swift motion Draco turned her around so that they were face to face.

"Sorry,"

Hermione suddenly found her wrists in stone handcuffs attached to the wall behind her. Though her body was free and she could twist and turn as much as she wanted, she wasn't going anywhere. She looked up from her fussing to find Draco standing directly in front of her, eyes stern and penetrating. Hermione took a deep swallow and followed Draco's wand as he raised it up and pointed it at her chest. He was pressingit onto her. It was hard enough of a press that Hermione was sure that there would be an indentation on it when, or if, he removed his wand.

"Fantastic!" Thorn was clapping in the background. Hermione clenched her teeth in anger and Draco snarled, though that facial expression Thorn couldn't see. "Alright then, finish her off."

Draco's fingers were holding onto his wand tightly. Hermione was nervous. What if he had changed his mind? What if he was about to break their silent promises not to kill each other? She wouldn't have been surprised if he did. She had only hoped that somewhere along the line he had grown to like her, like she had done with him, and that murder was a sentiment of the past…

"No," Draco voiced. He gently eased up on the pressure he was putting on the wand that was jabbed into Hermione's chest and continued. "Not until you get this bracelet off of me and let them go as well."

Thorn took a side-look to Atkins family who immediately gained a sense of hope and then sucked his teeth. "Like hell I will. Kill her and then you'll get what you want."

"It's not going to work like that, Thorn." Draco's face hardened as he twisted his body slightly to face him, but still kept his wand pointed at Hermione. "I've got about four minutes of life left. I could very well stand here and die. I don't give a damn. But of course you wouldn't want that. Aurors aren't meant to win this little game, are they?"

"Never have, never will…" Thorn sneered and then smirked as he kicked in a small laugh. He pulled out a tiny key from his pocket and twirled it between his fingers. "But don't think that I don't know you, Mr. Malfoy. The moment I do as you say, you'll flee. Not that I care all that much. You've left Miss Granger in quite the position. Easy for me to kill her after you've-"

"She'll be dead before you can even look in this direction." Draco snapped. Hermione's heart jumped twice at that, his tone sounding more serious than she had ever heard. He twisted his body back around towards her, his face as stern as his voice. "I'd rather kill her myself than to let you have any satisfaction in it. The key, _now_."

Hermione kept in a smile at his sweet, yet threatening gesture as Thorn acceded to Draco's proposal. The key was magically placed in Draco's free hand, and while Thorn's attention was to Atkins' family whom he let go, Draco was crafty. The stone handcuffs around Hermione's wrists were loosened so that her hands could slip through. Once Draco was free of his deathtrap, he began to smile. And Thorn, now that his two pieces of leverage were gone, was growing impatient.

"Go on." He ordered. "Kill her!"

"I'm sorry." Draco grinned. He turned to Thorn and shrugged. "What spell do I need to use for that?"

"You son of a-!"

"Bombarda!"

The bars that Thorn had produced to cage them were blown apart. The look on his face was priceless, and it was even more entertaining to see Draco go after him and Thorn take off. Hermione didn't want to miss out on this and slipped her hands through her restraints, scooped up her wand and followed them.

They had been on the floor of the holding cells, and Hermione knew that they had to get Thorn quickly. There was a Floo Network fireplace at end of the hall and around the corner. If he had gotten to it, Thorn would be gone for good and there'd be no way to find him.

_Stop him, stop him!_ Hermione was shouting in her mind. Draco was far ahead of her and on Thorn's trail. Just when she thought it'd be all over, Draco took a misstep. Thorn was swifter than expected. Although he was more concentrated on getting the hell out of there rather than defending, it didn't stop him from producing a rope from his wand and getting it around Draco's neck. With a hard yank, Draco was choked and down on the ground. He would've been killed had Hermione not been quick as well.

A disarming spell loosed Thorn from his wand, and before he could grab Draco's he was doubled over and dropping to his knees from a Stunning Spell. Hermione grew close enough to kick him in the back. He fell forward onto the floor, his hands and face scraping against loose debris. With a few more flicks of her wand Thorn was off of the ground and instead, in the same predicament Draco had put her in only moments before.

"Think stone handcuffs are funny, do you?" Hermione sneered at him. "Innoculus…" Thorn's head dangled as he became unconscious. Those "handcuffs" weren't just secluded to Thorn's hands, but his ankles, his throat, and also around the waist. She wanted to make sure that he was going absolutely nowhere. Draco smiled at her handiwork after he who had gotten himself up from the floor.

"I'm going to enjoy this." Draco said with chuckle in his voice. He raised his wand to Thorn and jabbed it into his throat. "Avada-"

"No!" Hermione shouted. She quickly put a hand on his arm to stop him from finishing the curse and Draco stared at her with more than just confusion.

"What do you mean no?"

"Malfoy, you may be a murderer, but I'm not. We're not killing him."

Draco scowled as he stared from Hermione to Thorn and back to her again. Instead of lowering his wand, he tightened it, seemingly to be still determined to do away with the man. "And those convicts you killed in the rainforest don't count anymore, do they?"

"…That was different." Hermione said after a small pause. "They were actively trying to kill me-"

"And Thorn wasn't?"

"But not anymore…" She insisted. "He's unconscious for bloody sake."

Draco didn't want to do it, but he knew she wouldn't let him kill the bastard no matter how hard he reasoned. He let out a groan of frustration and then lowered his wand as he watched her search Thorn for any more of those _precious_ bracelets.

"No matter," Draco nodded as a wicked smile slid across his lips. "He'll die in Azkaban. I'll see to that."

"No you won't."

"Don't tell me what I _won't do_. There aren't any rules in Azkaban and I'll be sure to kill him there."

"I already told you that you won't. And you won't because you're not going back to Azkaban."

"What? Granger, I highly doubt that this little good deed will take away my twelve-year sentence."

"Well, of course not." Hermione chuckled. "But obviously you don't get it." She was smiling now and had turned her back towards him. "Because you're going to go... You're going to leave by Floo, collect those millions of galleons I'm sure you have stashed away somewhere and disappear. All because you managed to escape while I wasn't looking."

Draco was in disbelief. He kept waiting for her to turn around, say that she was only joking and arrest him then and there, but she wasn't moving. "Granger,"

"_Go_, Malfoy." She said sternly. "Before someone sees or, more importantly, before I change my mind."

Hermione took a deep breath and sighed. Silence filled the air and she kept herself firmly rooted where she stood. The last thing that she wanted to do was turn around too soon before Draco had gone and then where would she be? She wanted it to be easy when someone asked where he had gone. She wanted to be able to honestly answer and say that she didn't see him.

Just as Hermione was about to take a peek to see if he had really gone, she stopped herself. She felt Draco place his hands on her waist. A second later his lips was pressed against her cheek and then she heard his voice in her ear. "Thank you." He whispered, and then he left abruptly, taking off down the corridor and to the Floos.

Hermione turned around in time to see the green light of Floo Flames disappear. By the time they were gone, so was she. Out of paranoia she made sure that Thorn couldn't get out of his restraints for a third time before leaving the cell floor. When she stepped up to the lobby Hermione was in utter disbelief that she was actually standing in the Ministry. It looked like an absolute war zone with debris everywhere, statues destroyed, and dead and unconscious bodies littering the ground. She scanned the place to make sure that none of the faces that she saw were anyone she knew.

She was thanking Merlin that Harry and Ron weren't of those lying on the ground. Instead, Hermione saw them up ahead apprehending some of Thorn's remaining henchmen.

"Harry, Ron!" She called. They turned to her, all smiles and cuts and bruises covering their faces.

"Merlin, are you alright?" Ron asked, taking in the sight of his dear friend. Hermione hadn't looked down at herself to see what condition she was in, though she was sure that she looked more than awful.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it. Come on, we need to get Thorn to Azkaban."

"Where is he?"

"Downstairs with all the holding cells... We should get to him quickly in case by some chance he manages to escape."

"And we'll take Malfoy along with us at the same time." Harry said with a nod. "He's downstairs with Thorn too, I take it?"

Hermione took a deep swallow she hoped her friends didn't see. She then slowly began shaking her head. "No… He escaped."

Harry's face fell with disappointment and Ron's even more so who immediately began to blame her for his escape. "You've got to be kidding! Hermione, how could you let him get away?!"

"What do you mean, how could I? He-"

"Malfoy was right in your grasp!"

"Well, excuse me for not being able to apprehend two criminals at the same time, Ron!" Hermione snapped at him. She led the way down to the holding cells and brought them to where Thorn was tightly secured. Ron was standing behind her, angrily grumbling about Draco running free.

She sighed and absentmindedly stared at the Floo. "I know what you're thinking, but he's probably long gone by now."

"She's right." Harry said with a frown, but then wiped it from his face and replaced it with a small smile. "But he'll be back though. And in Azkaban before we know it."

Ron rolled his eyes, knowing that the conversation about their escaped convict was dropped and was never going to be brought up again. As he attended to Thorn, motioning to other Aurors to help him out, Harry turned to Hermione.

"Come on. Let's get you to St. Mungo's."

"No."

"No? Hermione, you need to go to the hospital. You've been through hell-"

"I know what I've been through, Harry." Hermione said as sincerely as possible. She looked down at herself and then grimaced before looking back up at him. "I look like a mess and all I want, all I _need_, is a shower. A really, _really_ long shower…"

_Eight months later…_

The Ministry had been more than gracious when Hermione returned back to work. Soon after getting their hands on Thorn they found out how he had managed to get criminals out of Azkaban. It involved a few rogue Dementors (who had since been decommissioned) and a bit of dark magic. None of the convicts would remember being shoved into a Dementor, its body essentially becoming a Vanishing Cabinet, causing whoever fell therein to transport where they were to go. Brilliant magic, but awful for having been used. All Azkaban and Ministry personnel were interrogated fully until the person (turned out to be three individuals) who had been responsible for aiding in the magic was found.

Since Atkins was dead both Harry and Ron had been offered his job for the Head of the Auror Department. After a bit of talking (and to Hermione's suspicion, the flip of a coin), Harry accepted the job. As for Hermione in particular, she had been given a raise after seeing how well she had been able to handle herself during the whole escapade with Thorn. And with that raise, she did what everyone, especially Harry and Ron, were telling her to do: take an extended vacation.

Eight months, four different countries, and Hermione was loving it. She had to cut her stay in Australia short by two weeks though when she got an unexpected letter by an owl that she had never seen before. It had dropped a letter onto her bed as she was going to sleep and flew back out before she could've gotten a good look at it. As for the letter itself, Hermione had spent a great deal of time looking over it before even opening and reading it.

She had been amazed really, mostly at the expensive ink and parchment and the way her name had been written in delicate cursive. It was handwriting that she had seen many times before. Inside the letter itself, nothing much was written. It had only three words, a key, which she recognized as a portkey, and the letter signed at the bottom, "Your Friend, Darius."

Hermione hadn't wasted any time. Early the next morning she had packed away all of her things and checked out of the hotel, but made special arrangements that if anyone had asked for her, that a Speed Owl should be sent to her immediately, not disclosing to a single soul that she had left. A few minutes later she had hidden herself away in a corner, the portkey in hand, and was whisked away to somewhere unknown.

That "unknown" turned out to be a hot climate, and Hermione was opening her eyes to see that in front of her was a large condo, built above the sand. _The sand..? _She looked down at her feet, and then turned behind her, to see the sea roaring quietly behind her. She smiled and then turned to a voice that called to her from the condo's veranda.

"You made it." He grinned, and Hermione nodded, watching him disappear from the veranda and then some seconds later appear at the front door, hands at the rim of his pockets and leaning on the door frame. He looked the same to her, which was utterly surprising since he was supposed to be in hiding. But as she picked up her luggage and made her way to him, the inside of the condo became visible, and so did a mirror, of which his reflection could be seen and she then knew what he had done.

_Smart man…_ Hermione thought whimsically of his Illusion Charm. To her he still had the same golden hair, same penetrating eyes, cheeks, and smile. But to anyone else, that hair was brown, eyes a soft green, and a smile different in a way that was hard to place.

"'You should visit.'" She said, repeating the three words that had been in the letter. "How did you know those three little words would make me want to?"

"Because you're a curious woman." Draco smiled. "And I know you'd want to know how I was doing. Come on, I'll show you your room."

Draco led the way inside and Hermione followed him, closing the door behind her. As he linked arms with her and she listened intently as he showed her around, Hermione began to contemplate the consequences of her actions that weighed on her conscience. Draco had done her a favor in easing that weight by including the portkey instead of his address in the letter. Aside from the fact that it would've been an incredibly stupid thing to do, it would be easy for Hermione to say that she didn't know where he lived should anyone find out.

Though, Hermione hoped that this little secret would never come out into the open. If it had, she would be condemned for the rest of her life.

…..

**Author's note:** Well, that's the end of part one of the trilogy! I can't say how thankful I am for everyone that's read this story, left a review, favorited, and/or followed. Thanks! Part 2, Condemned with Reason, will be out next week. Hope that you continue :D

-WP


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